/vr/ - Retro Games

>>10922773
>Earthbound
Goes without saying. Played it on ZSNES after seeing pictures of it in an old Nintendo Power at my grandma's house and wondering where Ness from Smash Bros Melee came from.
>Earthbound 0
Fell in love with this after playing a lot of other famicom JRPGs. Easily one of the best on the system. It's genuinely impressive for having a complete world altogether like it is.
>Favorite character
Teddy. Not a lot of delinquent characters in the rest of the series.
>Favorite Area
I know it's not supposed to be, but Tazmily at the start of Chapter 4 is actually kind of comfy.
>Favorite Song
Probably another Mother 3 song.

>>10922773
EarthBound is the only one that matters.
Mother 1 is garbage
Mother 3 is garbage.

>>10922773
>Earthbound
I grew up playing smash 64 and then melee and I wanted to know who Ness was. Once I knew what emulaiton was EB was one of the first games I tried.

>Mother 3
I just think it's more fun than the other games. The story focus and linearity means it should be the least replayable, but it's the one I've played through the most by far.

>Ninten
I don't really know why, it's weird because EB0 isn't my favorite game in the series but he's the protag I like the most, probably my favorite character overall.

>Moonside
The whole place is just fucking cool. Mushroom Drugtrip Island from 3 is a close contender, Summers kinda did the same thing but the hallucinations didn't feel anywhere near as personal as the ones from the drugtrip from 3 did.

>Pollyanna, EB0 version
Song is just wonderful. Exploring the giant overworld is fucking great once you adapt to the frankly overwhelming freedom. That song just makes me happy. I associate it with specific gameplay memories more than I do with the other songs, maybe that's why I like it. I remember getting literally lost exploring the rivers north of podunk because I took the wrong northern path when I was trying to go back to Ninten's house, I made it all the way to the shore and the music swelled while my character looked out over the sea and I just imagined the scene...it was just kind of a magic moment. That song just fit with the opening of 0 really well, it feels so happy but also freeing and that just works with that whole area so perfectly.

You know, everything I just said about that song is probably why Ninten is my favorite character. I associate him with all of that.

Also, I'll never get used to calling it Earthbound Beginnings. I always call it Earthbound Zero without thinking.

I hope there's never a fourth game, it's a tidy little trilogy and it's complete. It's perfectly fine as is.

I played Earthbound as a kid but got filtered by Threed. Couldn't figure out where I was supposed to go and kept getting rekt by the obnoxious Zombie status effect or whatever the hell it was.

>>10923016
Same.

>>10922773
Haven’t played the third game but
>Earthbound 0
The ability to walk to pretty much every location without any interruptions really heightens the feeling of adventure, and there are very few things the game forces you to do other than collect the melodies unlike Earthbound. (Not separating the towns from the overworld like dragon quest really adds to this feeling, though Earthbound does that too). The combat is also a little more interesting in this game compared to Earthbound.
>Porky
I could list a lot of minor characters in both games that I like, but Porky is the perfect antagonist for a game that stars a preteen.
>Magicant
I remember being really surprised when I activated the cutscene that teleports you there for the first time. All of the inhabitants have memorable dialogue and the look of Magicant itself is really distinct from the mostly green and brown real world. It’s also one of the few places in the first game that isn’t accessible by foot. The Earthbound version is pretty cool too.
>Fourside
The song is so good that they reuse various parts of it in Earthbound’s other songs. This is also a contender for my favorite area because of how the game cleverly tricks you into thinking Fourside is much bigger than it really is through its layout and plot events. The horn instrument in the theme also adds to the big city atmosphere.

>>10922773
>Which one was your 1st?
Mother 3
>Which one's your favorite?
3
>Who's your favorite character?
The dogs that kept getting possessed by the developer just to give you tips in Earthbound
>What's your favorite area?
the cloud city from the first one
>What's your favorite song?
Pollyanna

I still need to finish earthbound, pretty boring game.

>>10922773
>Mother 2
That's pretty much the one most people start out with. Loved it.
>Mother 1
Best story, best soundtrack, best characters, ect. People who shit on this game for being hard got omega filtered.
>Favorite character
Kind of a runner up between a few. Ninten is probably my favorite because he's both a completely blank slate & also the one with the most personality since the encyclopedia is considered canon. I also really love Teddy, I just think he's cool. Gyiyg and Flint are also runner ups.
>Favorite Area
Probably Magicant in Mother 1. It's so heavenly & makes me feel comfortable and safe. On the opposite spectrum is Mt. Itoi. I love the intense atmopshere it brings, especially given the music & the enemy variety. Fourside, New Pork City, Dusty Dunes Desert, and Cave Of The Past are probably runner ups.
>Favorite Song
There's too many to choose from. Probably up between Pollyanna, Snowman, Eight Melodies (M1), All That I Needed (Was You), Mt. Itoi. Hard picks, really. Never been huge on 3s soundtrack desu. I like Mr. Batty Twist though.

>Which one was your 1st?
Earthbound/Mother 2
>Which one's your favorite?
Earthbound/Mother 2
>Who's your favorite character?
Buzz Buzz or Runaway Five
>What's your favorite area?
Scaraba because of you can level up FAST in this area
>What's your favorite song?
Battle Against Unsettling Opponent theme, reminds me of the Ren and Stimpy theme a little bit.

I'm playing Mother for the first time and exploring in this game is so arduous. So much empty space with no landmarks and almost no reason to explore. With encounters slowing you down exploring this desert takes hours of walking back and forth.

>>10925084
>Omega filtered.
Heh lol. I might have to steal that.

>>10922773
>>Which one was your 1st?
Mother 1/EB Zero
>>Which one's your favorite?
I like all 3 really. I used to hold M1 as my fav, and maybe 3 for the polished gameplay, but I must admit 2 is the one I played the most. All 3 are good. I didn't like 2 much at first, 1 and 3 made much better first impressions on me for some reason.
>>Who's your favorite character?
From each game: Teddy, Jeff, Kumatora
>>What's your favorite area?
From each game: Easter in 1, Saturn Valley in 2, Tazmily (future) in 3
>>What's your favorite song?
https://youtu.be/Zll39CT2wbI?si=tKd8_AnKjKjvrBEX
https://youtu.be/zK1OdYcSH-g?si=DcKwaHM7fj3oZb7z
https://youtu.be/6VW47he1eso?si=YQQzl1Ejdi8XtCZN

>>10925210
Yeah, it's sick isn't it?

>>10925210
Very soulful.
Also what did Itoi mean by this?

What's the best way to play Mother nowadays? I've seen a lot of bitching about the official translation and whatnot. I'm not really too interested in making things easier unless shit is really egregious.

I don't play a lot of RPGs anymore, but I've always been somewhat interested in the series since Smash 64 and Melee with Ness. I just never sat down and actually tackled the games for a significant amount of time.

>>10927828
Ultimately there's not really any "wrong" choice to make. There's several advantages to different versions of Mother
>Prototype/Phil Sandhop's Translation/The Official English Version
You're getting the raw experience that was intended back in 1991. Sure, there's some censorship. Yes, there's some dialogue that really reads out poorly due to hardware limitations, but you're getting the most honest version of what "Earth Bound" or "EarthBound Zero" is about. Despite what some people say, the sandhop translation has its own unique charm and flavor to it. I enjoy it a lot
>EarthBound Zero Easy Hack
Despite the name, the only thing the game actually changes is you get double EXP and double money. Everything else is the same. It's a pretty good time saver if you don't want to invest too much time into the game and/or you're not really interested in grinding.
>Mother 1+2 Fan Translation
The fan translation is more of what the original Mother japanese script was. There's a few liberties taken here & there, but it's the closest you'll get to what Japanese gamers experienced, dialogue wise. All the improvements from the American version are retroactively added, such as running, added epilogue, among other things. Movement is also more responsive than in the Famicom/NES version. The ultimate sacrifice is that the music & sound effects are painfully bad & the colors are more washed out. There's a hack that changes Sandhop's translation to the Fan Translation on the NES version if that's more up your alley
>Mother 25th Anniversary Edition
Honestly this version just kinda sucks. It tries to make the game "more accessible" to people who came off on Mother 2 & 3 by making it "fair". However they didn't really do a good job with their balancing changes so now you hardly get into fights & you play the game severely under leveled.
>Misc.
There's also some other hacks that you can mix & match but I'd only suggest looking into that if you end up liking Mother 1

>>10927760
I love how this area isn't elaborated much on in game but in the Encyclopedia it's genuinely one of the coolest areas in the game
According to a small exerpt (not the full description of the area):
>Before World War I, it was feared as unexplored territory. That and the fact that during the course of one day, the difference in temperature extremes are fierce, so that if you thought to record it at 57*C at midday, at first morning light, it would drop down to 25*C below zero. It is a desert zone that repels living things and is said to have a yearly rainfall of a mere 50mm (Tokyo, by the way, averages from 1000mm to 1500mm). Perhaps because of these severe climate conditions, according to an old legend in the region, Christ will make his Second Advent in this land once in a thousand years, and it is known as the place where He will receive the penance of the Resurrection.It is told that because of this, at some point it came to be known as Advent Desert.

Like holy shit dude what DID Itoi mean by this???

>>10922773
>Which one was your 1st?
1
>Which one's your favorite?
1, it has a somber aspect to it that tugs at my heartstrings
>Who's your favorite character?
Giegue
>What's your favorite area?
Cave of the Past
>What's your favorite song?
Eight Melodies

>>10927828
>I'm not really too interested in making things easier unless shit is really egregious.
I played for the first time a few months ago, I think the game is fine as long as you
1. Look up maps
2. Understand how the Bread/Crumbs item works and how to exploit it for fast traveling, especially once you have more than one party member

>>10928547
Yeah the encyclopedia adds A LOT to the game’s setting. With that and the music album, I consider Mother 1 more of a multimedia project rather than strictly a game.

>>10922773
Earthbound back in the mid 2000s after a friend gave me his old super nintendo games. Thanks Mike! I beat it on an emulator years later and don't think very highly of it.

>>10922773
>Which one was your 1st?
mother 3
>>10922773
>Which one's your favorite?
mother 3
>Who's your favorite character?
giygas
>What's your favorite area?
magicant
>What's your favorite song?
master porky's theme

>>10922773
>Which one was your 1st?
Earthbound, after seeing the game in the club Nintendo magazine about how shit the game advertising was back in the day, also smash yoyo kid
>Which one's your favorite?
I play earthbound the most, I like 3 gameplay better but EB is more charming for me
>Who's your favorite character?
Porky, is pretty good villian
>What's your favorite area?
Magicant, from the first game
>What's your favorite song?
Main theme from mother 1

>>10925084
>People who shit on this game for being hard got omega filtered.
Did anyone complain of it being too hard? I don't remember that too much and I don't think it was that hard. The level design and random enemy encounters made it feel like a repetitive grind though and it wasn't always that enjoyable to play despite not really being that hard.

Earthbound is my favorite but I loved Magicant in M1 and Polyanna too.

>>10922773

>Which one was your 1st?
Earthbound, legit rented in back in the day because it was a BIG BOX at the rental joint and Lethal Enforcer and Mario Paint didn't fail me

>Which one's your favorite?
Earthbound, I like the other 2, but Earthbound just hits different.

>Who's your favorite character?
Frank and the Sharks

>What's your favorite area?
Onett, but the arcade specifically

>What's your favorite song?
Maybe Fourside..... that's a tough one

>>10922773
I want to play the Mother series, but is it necessary to start out with 1 to understand the story? I kinda just want to jump in with Earthbound

>>10929408
Not really, mother 2/earthbound has enough differences to feel separate from mother 1/earthbound beginnings. The only thing it connects to is giving the origin story of the villain, but in my opinion that's optional and not necessary.

>>10929408
It depends on if you're going to look deeply into the themes of trauma with what little that actually is because it is carried over into the other games and used much more blatantly.

>Which one was your 1st?
earthbound. my brother bought the game new in 1995
>Which one's your favorite?
earthbound. mother is good but i didnt like mother 3 and doubt i will ever play it again
>Who's your favorite character?
dont really have one
>What's your favorite area?
magicant in earthbound
>What's your favorite song?
couldnt say, music is a highlight of the series overall

>>10929408
You can play Mother 2 without needing to play Mother 1, but I still suggest playing Mother 1 at some point. It really enhances everything

>>10929453
>It depends on if you're going to look deeply into the themes of trauma
please stop. its a goofy dq clone. i like it, but you have to stop.
>muh trauma

Out of all 3, Earthbound is the least pretentious but still suffers from the same fate of being stuck in a series which is essentially just a Dragon Quest ripoff where every final boss is obligated to be some meta game-breaking cumslurper, rendering everything and everyone pointless to the point when you're not even playing a JRPG anymore so that the Guy behind the game could tell you that sitting alone in your room playing video games is bad and you should go outside and touch grass. Itoi capitalized on this message for 4+2 games and used it as an excuse for the 6 years Earthbound 64 was in development which might have been an even bigger "fuck you" to the player than everything we got in the end as it meant to "betray" him or whatever the fuck that nip said in the interviews. And yet, despite Itoi's best efforts, Earthbound managed to gather one of the most cancerous and delusional fanbases who on an active basis indulge in escapism involving this very game as evidenced by this thread where people pretend Mother 1 was ever good.
I didn't care for either Mary and Magicant disappearing, Teddy being bedridden, EVE being destroyed, Giegue crying his eyes out because I've been pressing the same Sing button for 5 minutes already. I didn't care for Hinawa dying and reappearing again in Chapter 6, actually I even chuckled when Lucas jumped off the cliff because I didn't expect that, and sure as fuck I absolutely did not fucking care for the 20 fucking minutes long cutscene disguised as "the final battle" where it's just every movie trope ever, with Flint's comical timing getting a chuckle out of me again. Bad people were once innocent children who were coddled by moms in their cradles? Whoaaahhhhh
Mother 1's desperate attempts to make me feel anything for a bunch of pixels on my screen are pathetic. Mother 3 is like that too. Earthbound not so much. (1/3)

I don't recall Earthbound having any of that 2sad5me moments until the end, where imo it drags for too long, like who the fuck is Frank, oh is that guy from the very beginning, what wait why the fuck is he praying for me, didn't I beat his ass. But I admit it was clever to hide the final boss's weakness under the move which nobody used, iirc I had my entire party knocked out because I got bored and decided to utilize it for once lol, it wasn't so clever that I had to backtrack to Giygas because I became aware of Paula's power way too late into the fight though. Was it intentional? That you were supposed to figure out the Pray abiltiy during the Giygas fight through trial and error? Probably not considering the Earthbound player's guide explicitly tells you to use it but, oh well.
What I mean to say is, storywise the Mother series is pretentious overrated garbage, said story drags the gameplay down because Itoi decided he would go for the same "go outside and touch grass" message 3 times in a row, so you absolutely need to fight the "irrelevant to the game surroundings" boss at the end, otherwise the EXP obssesed player won't get what Itoi was trying to say, he's speaking on his language, to put it simply. Well, as it turns out, this didn't help at all. What also didn't help is the media surrounding Mother 1, "Guaranteed Masterpiece" my ass. Mother vocal album is also pretentious but not garbage, most songs are legitimately good while the minority are forgettable bland orchestral arrangements, like the Queen Mary's castle song or the 8th Melodies which is extended to play for 6 minutes by some church choir, those kids probably got raped by the priests, and anyway what's up with this christian LARP by Itoi & co.? Keiichi Suzuki made a better version of the song in his Mother Revisited album. There're also the Encyclopedia and Novelization, I've read the former 2 years ago so I don't remember anything, but it's definitely a better read than the Novelization. (2/3)

It's from the perspective of Ana who at the start of the adventure was a devoted christian later turned into a whore for Ken/Ninten and rock music while Lloyd gets cucked and Teddy nearly dies because muh power of love. It's also fanfic tier, she (the author) made Dr. Distorto from the Duncan's Factory Lloyd's dad. It's not worth reading unless you're head over heels for the slice of life trash. I also read the Mother 2 Novelization, it's from the perspective of Ness thankfully, Jeff has unexpected development here, Paula is a feminism loving bitch, I don't remeber what Poo is up too, Porky gets some pity and the author's interpretation of the Mani Mani statues is interesting. It's amateurish but, eh. I guess I would recommend it.
So my consensus is that Mother 1 is a slog to play for reasons you've heard elsewhere and Earthbound is good. Aside from the ending slander, Mother 3 is also good, if not better than Earthbound. The combo system adds something refreshing to the usual boring JRPG combat that can be recreated in Microsoft Excel. I like the sci-fi Mother 3 leans in so yeah, Earthbound doesn't really have a cohesive setting. I want to talk about the story. Call me a shitter but I don't think something like that could be recreated in any other medium other than the vidya medium. The development of the inhabitants of Tazmily, while not outright telling the player, shows them in a bad light constantly. When I played Mother 3 I've been asking myself "Why were they so quick to succumb to Fassad and the Pigmasks? Maybe they weren't the good guys after all..." and my suspicions were finally confirmed by Leder, indeed, Tazmily was never good. Or maybe that's a bad writing on Itoi's end and I weren't supposed to doubt Tazmilians as they came to my rescue at the end of the Porky-bot fight idk. Anyway I'm sure you guys out of everyone would know it, I'm not trying to sound smart or anything, I think this should be common sense. (actually fuck it 3/4)

I've just seen people using Mother 3 as a communist propaganda so I thought I should say something about it.
Something I haven't seen being mentioned is that, despite the series's name being Mother, there are hardly any good mother reps. Queen Mary is just there, she raised Giegue I guess, oh wow she's gone already huh. In the first 2 games you can be treated to your favorite food your mama cooked for you, that's cool but I won't go all the way back to my house just for that bit. In Earthbound after you defeat Giygas and'll be close to your house your mom will call you, offering congratulations and such while mispronouncing the name of the villain you had to remove the souls from your body to defeat. That's definitely a Earthbound kind of thing, wacky, quirky and relatable, but man... I wish mothers would actually care about their children besides the usual stuff. And there's Hinawa who dies but I guess it was worth it in the end as she sacrificed herself just so her son could land on a pile of hay instead of, you know, breaking his entire skeletal system.
No crying until the end or something. Actually I teared up a little at the end of Mother 3 because they called me by my name and wished all the good things. Nothing like the real life ;_;

>>10930195
>>10930198
>>10930202
>>10930206
I was skimming through this for like 3 minutes. This feels like too much. Please keep it brief next time.

>>10929612
The first game is very clearly about the trauma of Maria and Giegue. I can't help you if you think about things to simply.

>>10930206
mucho texto holy shit learn how to condense sentences you hyper autistic donut

>>10930206
Not them but I appreciate the posts. Fuck what they say about keeping it "brief."

>>10931049
>samefagging your own posts
kek

>>10929408
1 has the best cast in the series. Earthbound has a worse rehash of it. It's such a shame, really. Being stuck in a tech demo... There will never be another Teddy. At least Mother 3's cast was distinct enough.
>>10930673
This trauma is a few pixels deep. You can only tell that Maria has trauma because some NPC said she's regularly having nightmares. Giegue appears at the end of the game just to cry so people like you would call Mother 1 "deep". And what about George? Doesn't he also have trauma? And the gang too, no? Earthbound Giygas's "You can't comrpehend it" was borrowed from the NES release. Ninten and his party are victims too.
AFAIK even the Encyclopedia doesn't shed any light on the supposed "trauma", it's just has an extended George & Maria story that pop ups when you start the game.

>>10931073
>so people like you would call Mother 1 "deep".
I'm not calling M1 deep specifically. I'm saying its purpose in the overall series is that other games can continue off of its themes in more detail.
And yes a lot of the characters do process the events before and during M1 in reaction to some sort of fear, with some characters doing so more than others.

>>10931103
Yeah I'm retarded, misinterpret >>10929453 your post, sorry. You're right in regards to that Mother 1 offers a more insightful look into the themes of trauma throughout the series, but choosing trauma specifically over anything else, like the cast, for example, struck me as off I guess. And tbf I never really saw Giygas as some kind of a traumatic "loss of adolescence" event the way Itoi intended for it to be saw. I think of him and the Cave of the Past as something to spice things up and add some edge late into the game so that it would be remembered as something else other than the Dragon Quest ripoff stylized after Saturday morning cartoons. What trauma does Mother 3 explore? Your mom dies, your dad goes innawoods and your brother gets repurposed into a soulless automaton so you cope by... what, exactly? By pulling some needless which leads to your homeland's destruction?

>>10931169
>What trauma does Mother 3 explore?
Loss of family, childhood neglect, resenting your family, and wanting to die.

>>10931201
>childhood neglect, resenting your family
Seeing these two next to each other, you probably meant Porky, right? I agree, his arc is an accurate depiction of a child subjected to domestic violence in his household. He never learned what love is in the first place so he grows up to hate the word. Wonder about Picky though. As far as things go, he's a relatively normal kid. Second child bias?
Still, Porky is more of a comic relief character. He's fat and his dad beats him up so he farts on you in revenge. Even when locked inside the Absolutely Safe Capsule, the game just takes the piss out of Porky with "rolly, rolly". And that's based tbqh, Itoi probably didn't even think out this thing at all, I'm tired of all the s𐐬y bugmen hailing the ASC as literally one of the most terrifying fates ever zOMG, it must be up there with Reddit's basillisk DUDE eternal torture LMAO
Giegue/Giygas's arc is a parallel of Porky's and it's repeated twice for some reason. It's accurate too but you get to know Giegue/Giygas only right before the end of the game so it's not as impactful, whereas Porky has been popping up for a while. Giegue is largely forgettable because he looks like a generic alien blob and his fight goes exactly just as cliche as you'd expect it, in a game which was ironically made in spite of cliches. Giygas is good but I think it's a little too pretentious how when Itoi and the other guy were designing the dialogue for him they were nearly in tears according to them.
Flint going innawoods is childhood neglect too, Lucas doesn't seem to care though. I think on a larger scale of things it's meant to show how Tazmily isn't adapted to life but it's childhood neglect nevertheless.
>and wanting to die.
Ah. Child suicide. Actually I forgot about that lol. I bitched about the ending in my previous post but omitted this completely, huh.

This part feels like it's from a different game, like it's as if they retrieved the Earthbound 64 script and just lumped it in with a bunch of other stuff. I would want to die too if I were turned into a murderous cyborg like Claus, prolly whole lotta irreversible damage done to your body, during your puberty too. Jokes aside I got an impression that it wasn't a suicide but a random act done in the middle of the haze where you start hearing you long gone mom's thoughts in your head, so when she asks for a hug you mistake her for your brother standing in front of you and a hug for a deadly spell. Claus dies anyways so who cares. This was done purely for shock value and doesn't explore anything.
Honestly none of those are deep but you never implied they are so I won't be a sperg for once.

I come off as disingenuos trying to criticize Mother 1 so I should elaborate. It was my first JRPG and I actually liked it. But when I replayed the GBA port with Tomato's translation (I didn't use the Easy Ring), it was a snoozefest. There is no point in fighting anyone, the game doesn't reward you with anything, you go from one overpowered enemy to another overpowered enemy, or, if you want to revisit past places, from one underpowered enemy to another underpowered enemy. There are barely any bosses that don't involve a cutscene afterwards. Giegue is the worst offender of all of this because he's the final boss, he's meant to encapsulate everything the combat stands for, but no lol instead you sing some nursery rhyme to him. At least in the next entries there was an actual final boss before the inevitable game-breaking cumslurper shows up and ruins all fun, before Giegue there is no one like that, maybe only the Dragon in the Magicant Underground who I beat in 2 turns using Ana's PK Freeze which reduces all HP to 1.

You only really need to engage in combat until you're done with Duncan's factory, which is btw the only place in the game I would consider fair and fun, never got the hate, the maze's fun. After that just run away from everyone on your path. No point in defeating a strong enemy and then being ambushed by the same enemy 2 steps in. The thing is the Famicom version didn't even have a run button lol, running costs PP here. Not a big deal since you'll eventually get a PSI Stone, I think in my GBA playthrough I had the same stone from the beginning at the end, maybe that's a bug but I also remember being surprised by its durability in the NES version.
There's also the "nonlinearity" meme. The only time it actually matters on a normal playthrough is when you can make Ana join your party before going to Rosemary's manor, or alternatively leave her out so it would be harder. You can go in the train tunnel in Thanksgiving but why would you torture yourself like that? I went in and lost my money here once.
Mt. Itoi wasn't even playtested so yeah. The combat isn't worth it. After that the only thing keeping you playing is the writing. Mother 1 is more sincere (and pretentious too) than Earthbound and doesn't have the quirkiness the latter gets often praised for, but it's fun. It's fun to walk around the place and talk to NPCs. Mother 1 has the best cast in the series, with Earthbound feeling more like a dollar store variant of it. Mother 1 also has the best rendition of Snowman, both the place and the song.
Honestly I wouldn't be that critical of Mother 1 if it weren't for all the hipsters putting it on a pedestal. Pedestal of what, untranslated multimedia? It was translated, actually, but only a few years ago, like both the Encyclopedia and Novelization were translated in 2022. Other than that it's a nice little game. I like it.
Forgot to mention. Earthbound's coffee breaks are a redundant pep talk and should have made the cut.

>Which one was your 1st?
MOTHER 3
>Which one's your favorite?
MOTHER 3 > MOTHER 1 > MOTHER 2
>Who's your favorite character?
Claus
>What's your favorite area?
Youngtown
>What's your favorite song?
There are too many good ones to choose from.
Snowman, it is finished, dry guys, youngtown, Porky's theme.

I dont get how anyone can like mother 1 over mother 2. Sounds like some contrarian bullshit. I guess 1 is more open world-esque which some people feel like evokes adventure better. I remember some guy arguing the character writing is better in 1. But it's still extremely paper thin and basic isn't it? It barely makes a difference.

What genre do you call the Earthbound battle themes? I've been listening to them forever and i need more music like it.

>>10933661
It really depends on which ones you're talking about.
New Age Retro Hippie is Classic R&R
Flippant Foe is kinda like Bebop
Weak Opponent is Classic R&R since it's literally just Tequila
Machine Opponent is Techno
Porky Means Business is Hard Rock
Unsettling Opponent is Jazz
Some of the other ones are kinda left up to personal interpretation or whatever the original composers envisioned. Like it's not really obvious what shit like Dangerous Foe or Weird Opponent would be outside of the context of their games.
Mother 3 songs it's fairly obvious since that game just uses midis

>>10930673
>Giegue
Is this really what the localizers decided his name should be? What the fuck were they thinking. He literally had an english name already.

>>10935401
>implying gyiyg is easier to pronounce than giegue
I don't think 8 or 9 year old children are gonna know how to pronounce that. Hell, people struggled to pronounce Giygas right

>>10922773
What happens if you try to teleport with EVE in MOTHER 1?

>>10935401
You cannot grasp the true form of Giygas's name!

It's supposed to be alien-like. Hence why it's hard to pronounce.

>>10935540
I actually don't now I've never tried it...

>>10933656
Mother 1 is less of a slog, and was more straightforward for me.
I also wan't missing all the time in mother 1 like in mother 2.

I own not one but two copies of EarthBound. It's probably my favorite video game of all time, although Lufia 2 is a damn strong contender.

>>10922773
I played Earthbound Beginnings once. The Tomato GBA translation. Finished it and enjoyed it for what it was but haven't touched the series since.

>>10933656
character writing is better by default considering the fact that you have to actually earn your party members instead of them just joining just because.
Like Poo joins you for no fucking reason. Jeff only joins cuz he was told to. Paula is the only one that joins you because you saved her.
The fact that you have to earn Lloyd's trust just feels right. You only get Ana because you return her hat. If you talk to her without her hat she only talks about how she saw Ninten in her dreams. Teddy joins you since you're able to prove your toughness to him.

Also just the fact that George & Maria's backstory goes a longer way than the non-existent backstory in Mother 2. Like they talk about the apple of enlightenment but never really elaborate on it. The eight melodies in 2 are just "the powers of the world" or whatever the fuck. The eight melodies don't really hold any significance in that game. It doesn't really mean much in the grand scheme of things. It just makes Ness more powerful. That's about it. Eight Melodies are the entire point of the climax of Mother 1.

Also just the fact that the characters in 1 have more personality. You have to reference the encyclopedia to really get much outta them but it's still more than what 2 has.

>>10922773
Earthbound - Played as an adult and it somehow felt like it implanted memories of me playing it as a kid during the summer. Kicking myself for not ever getting it as a kid.

Again Earthbound, it's a near perfect game besides the few leveling points.

Favorite character? Ness is cool, Teddy rules, Ness' sister is actually very funny

Favorite Area is Onett for sure. The transition from sort of country house to small rural town was my exact setup as a kid. It nails all that feeling and experience and charm.

Fave song is def Pollyanna from 1 with Catherine Warwick vocals.

Final thoughts - Earthbound>1>3. Took me forever to finally play 3 after being so hyped up in my mind and it was good, but simultaneously a huge letdown. It's extremely depressing and feels like 10 different novellas stapled together rather sloppily. I'd never want to play it again and very few parts actually made me feel good or like I was enjoying myself. Kumatora rules though. It's sort of a bad game/bad story and I unironically think it the 64 version came out it would be SOOOO much better.

>>10925210
what a bitch, go play a Ubisoft open world game instead zoom zoom

>>10939128
Bro your literally me.

>>10939149
My guy

>>10939128
>It's extremely depressing and feels like 10 different novellas stapled together rather sloppily. I'd never want to play it again and very few parts actually made me feel good or like I was enjoying myself. Kumatora rules though. It's sort of a bad game/bad story and I unironically think it the 64 version came out it would be SOOOO much better.
Yes, it would've been. Shigesato Itoi, in an interview he did with Iwata & Miyamoto on the cancellation of Mother 3 on N64, actually said if he were to remake it, it'd be less ambitious and a "vignette" of the original. (exact words, translated from Japanese that is)

https://yomuka.wordpress.com/2013/08/18/earthbound-64-cancellation-interview-itoi-miyamoto-iwata

So you're correct on this point, as Itoi said it himself. And it makes sense as it was designed with the N64 in mind so 3D graphics would've given it more mood/atmosphere. If we got it it may have resembled the dark/whimsical tone of Majora's Mask. The trailer gives us a great idea of what it would've been like.

But I disagree on the game or story being "bad." It's more linear than the first two, but this is intentional, as it has more emphasis on story. How much you like the story compared to the others is subjective. But saying it's "depressing" or "bad" doesn't get anything across. (your point it's like multiple novellas stapled together is the closest you get to actual critique) I don't feel a need to defend it here; due to the fan translation and internet Itoi's work is now appreciated and recognized by so many who aren't even necessarily big Mother, Nintendo or RPG fans. It's probably not a coincidence Itoi is mostly a writer, not a game designer, and just did these three games (and the fishing games) since he was inspired by an idea.

Also, it was inspired by three books which are known for being dark (originally written in French) by the Hungarian wrier Ágota Kristóf, the first of which is called The Notebook. Itoi was obviously an avid reader.

>>10922773
Earthbound was my 1st and its still my favorite.

Apple kid was my favorite part about earthbound and I feel like he encapsulates everything I love about the series.

Favorite area is happy happy village from earthbound, loved the off-putting vibes from it.

The secret underground from earthbound has my favorite type of caveman/stone age music from any game.

>>10939635
>So you're correct on this point, as Itoi said it himself. And it makes sense as it was designed with the N64 in mind so 3D graphics would've given it more mood/atmosphere. If we got it it may have resembled the dark/whimsical tone of Majora's Mask. The trailer gives us a great idea of what it would've been like.

I've seen the trailer and can say it
could've been Nintendo's Final Fantasy VII, but they had to fuck it all up and put it on gba. I'm honestly pissed this didn't happen.

>>10939128
>It's extremely depressing and feels like 10 different novellas stapled together rather sloppily.
good way to put it. mother 3 felt like i was vicariously experiencing itoi's mid life crisis. whatever he was trying to communicate, another mother game was not the right avenue. what a weird, pointless game

>>10939785
>felt like i was vicariously experiencing itoi's mid life crisis
Honestly you could say the same thing for Earthbound too

>>10922773
>Earthbound
>Earthbound
>Master Belch
>Happy Happy Village
>Battle Against Unsettling Opponent theme
I really like Mother as well, I think its the contemporary setting of the first two games that I like so much

>>10922773
>Which one was your 1st?
Mother 2
>Which one's your favorite?
Mother 2
>Who's your favorite character?
Ness
>What's your favorite area?
Picrel, because of atmosphere, Saturn Village for chillax
>What's your favorite song?
Enjoy Your Stay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhzrsJgz8NU