/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.2070626]

What's /vr/'s opinion of the Mother series? Also, general Mother thread, I guess.

I started playing through Earthbound a few days ago, and I plan on playing Mother 3 soon.

[Anonymous No.2070637]

I actually JUST finished Mother 1 yesterday, having played Mother 3 and Earthbound first. Tbh, I really didn't enjoy Mother 1 at all. I really liked the others though.

I'm super stoked for the fangame Mother 4 and Citizens of Earth. They look like good spiritual successors.

[Anonymous No.2070643]

>>2070626
Its Dragon Quest reskinned to be ZANZY and POP CULTURE REFERENCES LOL

I think its a garbage game, with an uninteresting story and no redeeming features.

Of course some ones just going to come in and say that I hate fun and video games, and that I didn't have a childhood.

The thing is, I did play this as a child. I hated it then, and I hate it now

[Anonymous No.2070681]

>>2070643
U just hat fun n vido gams, u didn't hav childhod.

But seriously, I get why people don't like it. The funny thing is, I couldn't get into Dragon Quest.

[Anonymons No.2070743]

>Earthbound (SNES)
loved it. joined the cult, created the original SPC archive.
>Mother (FC)
loved it. played through at least 3 times.
>Mother 3 (GBA)
what the fuck is this shit?

[Breath of Fire 2 or Lufia 2 an(...) No.2070768]

>>2070643
There's tons of games that are just "Dragon Quest reskinned". When playing old RPGs, I'm mainly doing it for the story.

[Anonymous No.2070781]

>>2070643
to be fair some children do deserve to be beaten

[Anonymous No.2070786]

>>2070643
You could call Mother 1 that. But you couldn't have played that back then.
Earthbound plays significantly different from DQ and even if you disagree on that you can't in regards to the game feel, plot, story structure, visuals.

[Anonymous No.2070789]

>>2070643
I agree. I also played it as a kid and still have the cart back home.

Back then I felt the game had a disjointed, nonsensical story with random events vaguely connected by the hint of some undeveloped big bad without any real presence or threat for the entire game. Characters are cardboard cutouts with no progression or real personality, and nothing makes any sense. It seems as it was written on the go.

You're supposed to gloss over all of this because it's "funny" and has "charm". But it's barrage of pop culture references. Characters are just caricatures with no real personality (I feel the whole story is, save a few select scenarios), and I guess that's why THEY can't be funny and instead the story has to rely on outside references for humor to work.

I have replayed it twice as an adult, since everybody keeps saying how special it is. I still feel the same way about it.

Game feels like a reference catalog for better works, basically. Its humor feels like a stereotypical quirky hipster, one who tries to be "unique" by virtue of what they can reference because they can't offer anything unique on their own.

Gameplay was a mess too, with terrible inventory management and generic mechanics beyond the rolling counter. That its best feature is the ability to auto-skip battles is a sad testament to how boring the gameplay is.

Mother 3 was better because its characters had actual lives and development. The story was better developed and actually had a point. Even though most of it was still zany pop culture references, Mother 3 can still stand on its own. I guess it's the game Mother 2 was supposed to be. For full disclosure, since I never enjoyed Earthbound I never played Mother 1, so I don't know if it's better or worse.

[Anonymous No.2070809]

>>2070643
>no redeeming features.
Rewarding fast decision-making in combat with less health lost the faster you beat enemies is in my eyes a pretty redeeming feature for a JRPG.

>>2070789
>Characters are cardboard cutouts with no progression or real personality
So just like almost every party-based retro RPG there is then?

[Anonymous No.2070813]

>>2070789
>Characters are just caricatures with no real personality (I feel the whole story is, save a few select scenarios)

Perhaps the same could be said of [spoilers]all religions[/spoilers] pretty much every fucking videogame

[Anonymous No.2070824]

>>2070809
>So just like almost every party-based retro RPG there is then?
>>2070813
>Perhaps the same could be said of [spoilers]all religions[/spoilers] pretty much every fucking videogame
1. Final Fantasy 3 onwards and other such games at least attempted to do this, with varying degrees of success. Earthbound gloats on its characters being cardboard cutouts.

2. Even when other RPGs have characters with no personalities, most at least try to offer a coherent plot. Earthbound's is random and disjointed.

3. Many RPGs where characters have no personalities allow party customization, which Earthbound doesn't.

4. Earthbound's emphasis is on plot and humor, and these are the features most heavily promoted by its fans. Gameplay evidently taking a backseat given how shallow it is and how you're forced to skip it after a while. Most quality retro RPGs, especially from Earthbound's time, tried to have something unique to their gameplay even if the story wasn't the best. Unless you really want to defent Earthbound by comparing it to Tecmo Secret of the Stars.

[Anonymous No.2070828]

>>2070781
>beating your children because they don't like something you like
Sure is 1930's in here. Don't ever have kids.

[Anonymous No.2070856]

>>2070626
Does anybody notice that some parts of EB's plot has some coincidental similarities to the plot of pic related?

[Anonymous No.2070864]

>>2070828
too bad for you my kids love earthbound

but if they didn't-

[Anonymous No.2070867]

>>2070824
>Most quality retro RPGs, especially from Earthbound's time, tried to have something unique to their gameplay even if the story wasn't the best.
wat
Earthbound has the autowin/surprise depending on how you approach enemies on the overworld, it has the GUTS thing, it has the "react faster and lose less HP", it allows you to see encounters ahead of time.
What other rpgs at the time had anything similar?
Breath of Fire had what, hunting on the overworld?
Lufia had nothing special about it.
Final Fantasy had... (I honestly don't know since I never really played much of it past 1-3).

>>2070828
>Sure is 1930's in here.
This still happens today.

[Anonymous No.2070882]

>>2070824
>cardboard cutouts
The point of an RPG, what got lost in decades of videogames, is that you, the player, are playing the role of the characters. It's your job to fill in the gaps, to imagine your own reactions to the story and challenges with the few elements of character and plot you're given.
It's not worse than fully written out story based RPG, it's simply different.

[Anonymous No.2070893]

It's a fun series

but not as fun as watching fanboys and knee-jerk grumps run through the same arguments every time a Mother game gets brought up

[Anonymous No.2070894]

>>2070867
The gameplay is really not the most important thing, if anything its accessory to the narrative and only becomes the narrative in the best examples.

Earthbound attempts to make the conflicts interesting through the context and thematic meaning

There is nothing particularly meaningful about fighting slugs and slimes and demons in Dragon Quest, they're all just monsters who exist for you to not feel bad about smacking around

The Mother series will put you in the role of a child who has to fight an entire police department because an alien has decided to fuck up his ordinary life. It paints a picture where adults are sometimes wrong and misguided and selfish or ignorant or just bizarre. It's a closer facsimile of real life while still being a whimsical fictional story. It's unrealistic without having to break its verisimilitude. It's realistically unrealistic.

It's an allegory to a child about how sometimes people are simply fucked up and you have to build up a certain amount of courage to face life even when society and its figures of authority let you down.

[Anonymous No.2070905]

>>2070894
While an interesting take on things, I really don't see how that in any way relates to my post. I was talking exclusively about gameplay.

[Anonymous No.2070907]

Mother 2 has the best video game OST of all time

[Anonymous No.2070908]

I don't know what I like more

Games that aren't Earthbound or the smelly hipsters that feel it's the Mona Lisa and get sweaty when you tell them it's mediocre.

[Anonymous No.2070909]

>>2070907
>sounds like you're playing a SNES SimCity half the game
Sure.

[Anonymous No.2070910]

Its cool to hate on earthbound because of how popular it is,just like final fantasy 7 and ocarina,these threads are dime a dozen ,just accept that some people like it and some dont theres nothing to say about the series which hasnt already been said

[Anonymous No.2070914]

>>2070908
seems like a weird thing to be uncertain about

[Anonymous No.2070935]

>>2070867
>Earthbound has
Autowin and rolling counter are the only innovations unique to Earthbound.

Breath of Fire had the dragon system (I) and shaman system (II).
Lufia was old school through and through, but had a coherent plot. Lufia II had visible overworld enemies, battle stances depending on how you approached them, IP system, and the Ancient Cave. Quite the gameplay behemoth compared to Earthbound.
Final Fantasies had party customization and job systems.

>>2070882
>The point of an RPG, what got lost in decades of videogames, is that you, the player, are playing the role of the characters
I agree, and this is why RPGs often offer party creation. The story then is independant from the playable character's personalities, and everything is non-linear.

Earthbound has a fixed party with fixed backgrounds and fixed premises, and the entire plot stems from Ness. I guess he's meant as a stand-in for the player, but the the game has him have a fixed background and you even visit his own subconscious, making him his own unchangeable character.

But there are no gaps to fill. Characters are shallow and briefly defined, with no real interactions amongs them. "What got lost in decades of videogames" was already lost in Earthbound, otherwise it'd offer party creation or, at the very least, customization.

>It's realistically unrealistic.
I'd say it's incoherent and pointless more tan anything.

[Anonymous No.2070940]

>>2070905
you cannot strip the gameplay of it's symbolic elements and analyze it as a separate thing, m'kay?

if you turned all the stat values of things like strength and HP to meaningless jibberish or symbols and left the enemies as nothing but colored blocks without names or context or background, you would not get the same kind of experience playing it

it might be an interesting experiment to do that or make a game system that could still be enjoyable like that and maybe translate it back into a game, but you also cannot take the simulation out of the gameplay without fundamentally changing what it is. What you're supposed to be doing narratively when you're clicking buttons to beat up a crazy policeman with a baseball bat, does actually effect the mental state you experience while playing the game.

[Anonymous No.2070945]

>>2070909
Fight me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-iZopf7POc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=204BDmIg7B4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_595hxj-dc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZJ0UgdHAIU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I02_S0Jre3Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1uuYxPv24s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-xtCP3ehDE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiGfjOLF_j0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bEGQpahT2M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmPDu-_FYR4

There are a lot of contemporary tracks, mainly in the cities, but the soundtrack is broad as fuck

[Anonymous No.2070948]

I finished EarthBound and Mother 3 for the first time this year and they're now two of my favourite (if not my two outright favourite) JRPGs.

[Anonymous No.2070949]

>>2070940
>post-structural analysis of rpgs
ayy lmao

also >>>/lit/

[Anonymous No.2070964]

>>2070935
In Earthbound you literally play yourself, the person playing the game and holding the controller that controls Ness.

Ness is definitely his own person, whose personality is partially dictated by you, because you and Ness are supposed to be different versions of you. Ness in the game is who you might be if you were Ness. Now I know that sounds weird but you have to understand that your Ness and my Ness aren't really the same Ness. They did different things at different times because we didn't do the same things. So in Earthbound you play you, the person playing the game and controlling Ness, who isn't really just a proxy of you but actually the dude is his own dude, because he's like you're friend whose a lot like you and does the things that you would do, but then is distinct having his own personality and situation in his own world.

It's supposed to be like that.

What you reflect upon in your mind while playing the game is part of the game's intentions with its design.

[Anonymous No.2071000]

>>2070964
>Ness in the game is who you might be if you were Ness.
Every single character ever is who I might be if I was that character.

>Now I know that sounds weird but you have to understand that your Ness and my Ness aren't really the same Ness. They did different things at different times because we didn't do the same things.
Every single game character is different for each player then, because nobody plays any game exactly the same.

>So in Earthbound you play you, the person playing the game and controlling Ness,
This is the only thing you say that makes sense, because the game acknoweldges that you and Ness are different people. So I don't see how you are a "different version" of Ness - the game plays with the idea that you and him are different.

The only variation you can cause in Ness is naming his favorite thing and food. And this doesn't really change anything more than two words.

Plus all of this doesn't negate the fact that Ness and the party are underdeveloped caricatures.

[Anonymous No.2071008]

>>2070935
>Final Fantasies had party customization.
..which it got off of CRPGS like Wizardry and Ultima.

>and job system
DWIII did that 4 years before FFV.

[Anonymous No.2071013]

>>2071008
Yes, and? They still had these things to enhance gameplay beyond bare basics, alongside attempts of having a coherent story that wasn't just zany attempts at humor.

Not to mention ATB.

[Anonymous No.2071205]

I love Dragon Quest games and I love Mother games.

That said, the only one that's more of a DQ clone (only in the battle screen and menues) is Mother 1, Mother 2 and 3 have enough differences from Dragon Quest, whether it is Earthbound's rolling HP meter or being able to see enemies on the screen map (even sneak up behind them). And same thing in M3 but even with more stuff, like the combo hits, etc.

They're still very DQ-like, but that's not a bad thing, really.

Other than that, Mother games don't have an overworld map and then sub-maps for towns, like every DQ game does. That was actually one of the features Mother 1 boased about in its release: how huge the game is, and how almost every part of the game, including all the towns, are all in the same map.
Graphics and generally the kind of adventure Mother 1 is, differs greatly with Dragon Quest. It's obviously meant to be very DQ-like (the game even jokes referencing DQ and all), but at the same time it's very different. If you've played Dragon Quest games on the NES, and Mother 1, you know you can't say they're "clones".
There's many other games that are a lot more similar to DQ than Mother 1 is. Final Fantasy, for example.

[Anonymous No.2071229]

>>2071013
Most Final Fantasy games have bare bones game play with hardly any customization. The stories are the same crap repeated over and over.

[Anonymous No.2071317]

>>2071229
Final Fantasy I had party customization, II had the SaGa-esque levelling system and keywords, III had the job system, IV had ATB, V had a expanded job system + ATB, VI had relics, magicite and espers.

Save for II and IV, they all offer means to customize your parties, with I, III and V basically revolving around this idea.

If you really think they have the exact same stories you need to read a plot summary again. Beyond similar themes, they're all their own games. I won't say the stories are excellent, but they're solid and attempt to be coherent. They do have deus ex machinae and inconsistent plot at times, and they get rightfully called out for it.

Whereas if you do the same with Earthbound's mess of a plot you get postmodernist essays like >>2070964 and >>2070940 defending the nonsensical story structure of the game as valid. Because it was "meant" and designed to be nonsensical, which means it isn't really nonsensical, just deep and meta.

Earthbound's story is unique, but unique doesn't always mean good.

[Anonymous No.2071356]

>>2071317
you know, just because you don't understand it doesn't mean the meaning isn't there

like there are plenty of people who don't see the lewd jokes when reading Shakespeare, but they're still all there

why do you get so upset when something's over your head? it happens to everyone

[Anonymous No.2071368]

>>2071356
>literally using 2deep4you as an argument

You're making excuses for incoherence and overreliance on outside references. Earthbound's story can't stand on its own without any of those elements. You can see clothes all you want, but the emperor's still naked.

[Anonymous No.2071436]

>>2071368
what is it about your brain that thinks there is literally any story at all that isn't built on references to preexisting things

[Anonymous No.2071462]

>>2071436
You mean a time-travelling insect travelling through time and telling some kid that in the future, an alien will take over the entire world and the only way he can stop it is by visiting random, unexplained map locations so he's able to understand himself better. Then a series of unrelated things happen, such as cultists obsessed with the color blue kidnapping a girl or select animals going bersek, which we find out is the extent of the alien's powers for whatever reason. Also your neighbor is a dick and you have to help out a band of jazzists, again with no relevance to anything.

Finally you do visit all the random, unexplained zones and then you go into your unconscious. After clearing that, you get a stat boost and that's it. In the end you're sent back through time as a robot to fight the alien in the past. Your neighbor is there, references a bunch of unseen events that are never explained at all, and you fight the final boss.

I'm not even trying oversimplify the story. That's all that stuck with me after playing it three times. It's zany, it's nonsensical, the events are only amusing by picking up references and it's only vaguely connected by the "threat" of Giygas, a threat that is absolutely underwhelming until the very end, despite how foreboding the title screen and Buzz Buzz are.

[Anonymous No.2071619]

>>2070894
But that's the point. It's supposed to, and I don't wanna use this phrase at the risk of sounding pretentious, represent a young boy growing up in the world.

[Anonymous No.2071625]

>>2071436
>>2071462
Has this seriously just been you two going back and forth for the past few hours? Just get it over with and fuck already.

I don't usually side with the hipster Earthbound kids, but anti-EB guy is basically saying "stop liking what I don't like" over and over. There's no point in arguing with someone like that.

[Anonymous No.2071631]

>>2070856

That looks a lot like Osamu Tezuka stuff.

I feel intrigued to read it now that you say it's similar to EB.

[Anonymous No.2071632]

>>2071619
I think Mother 3 does this better though. I mean at the end of the day Ness just goes back home and is a kid again, but Lucas faces a lot more.

[Anonymous No.2071642]

>>2071632
I would think this would apply to all the Mother games, but you're right, more to Mother 3.

[Anonymous No.2071643]

>>2071631

Might be Ishinomori. Who can tell with all this early stuff, mang.

[Anonymous No.2071689]

>>2071643
Yeah, it's Ishinomori all right, but he only did the art. The guy who wrote it also wrote for 8 Man.

[Anonymous No.2071772]

I'm playing Earthbound for the first time. Jeff is fucking awful and he won't go away.

[Anonymous No.2071813]

>>2071772
>Jeff is awful
How far are you in? He takes a while, but he starts getting useful at some point.

[Anonymous No.2071814]

>>2071772

Hey, don't knock Jeff so quickly. He's the only one who can use bottle rockets, and those things have gotten me through some pretty bad pinches.

[Anonymous No.2071836]

>>2071814
Jeff's main use is that he can invent reusable battle items that will do things like analyze the enemy for weaknesses or remove shields from them.

He also attacks pretty accurately, so he turns out to be pretty useful by the end of the game. Bottle Rockets do fixed damage too.

[Anonymous No.2071883]

>>2071836

Sure, but I never really use any of those gadgets he fixes. Maybe once or twice but I've gotten pretty far without 'em.

[Anonymous No.2071896]

>>2071883
I'm sure you could finish the game without using psi abilities too if you wanted.

what's your point?

[Anonymous No.2071910]

>>2071772
Bottle Rockets, baby

[Anonymous No.2071969]

Ness has the best alternate costumes in ssb3ds

[Anonymous No.2071975]

>>2070643
>Of course some ones just going to come in and say that I hate fun and video games, and that I didn't have a childhood.

To be fair you still sound like a child who wants to be contrarian by hating on things people are talking about so I didn't think you actually matured past your childhood.

[Anonymous No.2071995]

>>2071975
>by hating on things people are talking about
The op asked about opinions, and that guy is giving his opinion.

[Anonymous No.2072070]

>beat Earthbound last month
>decided to start playing Mother 3
>mfw I beat Chapter 1
What the fuck?

[Anonymous No.2072078]

>>2072070

Mother 3 was heavily inspired by the Claus and Lucas trilogy novels from Agota Kristoff.

Keep in mind the originally N64 Mother 3 was going to be much darker than the GBA game.

[Anonymous No.2072108]

Kumatora is my fave

[Anonymous No.2072114]

>>2072108
I'd Kuma her Tora if you know what I mean

[Anonymous No.2072115]

>>2070948

[Anonymous No.2072124]

>>2072114

[Anonymous No.2072187]

>>2072108

[Anonymous No.2072397]

Great games fucking terrible fan base. Anyone who has been to Starmen.net is aware of this. It is autism unleashed.

Also Mother 1 confirmed for best ending to an NES game of all time

[Anonymous No.2072398]

>>2071813
Jeff is alright in the late mid-game, then he becomes shit again.

[Anonymous No.2072482]

>>2070643
>pop culture references
you've clearly never played the game

[Anonymous No.2072570]

>>2072397
You can't deny that Starmen.net has a good walkthrough.

[Anonymous No.2072649]

Most frustrating and complicated RPG I've ever played.
But that just makes it more enticing, if you ask me.

[Anonymous No.2072670]

>>2072398

Not if he repairs the bazooka. That weapon is awesome.

[Anonymous No.2073089]

EarthBound is a great game, but it has several glaring flaws. Most centered around it's inventory system, which is awful.

[Anonymous No.2073293]

>>2073089
Yeah I can get behind this. Your equipment should really not take up inventory space, and this goes for all games. I think it's dumb. It's already four slots taken up by equipment.

[Anonymous No.2073312]

>>2073293
>being this made just because a game isn't easy-mode final fantasy

[Anonymous No.2073315]

>>2073312
but it's ARTIFICIAL DIFFICULTY!

[Anonymous No.2073327]

>>2073315
Resident Evil has a limited inventory space and you don't bitch about that

How much shit to you expect a bunch of kids to be able to stuff into their backpacks anyway? of course that shit isn't going to be organized unless you organize it, Ness is like 10

[Anonymous No.2073435]

>>2073312
The limited inventory doesn't make Earthbound any harder though. It's a painfully easy game. So having to spend a lot of time just depositing and withdrawing and disposing and depositing etc items all the time just gets annoying.

[Anonymous No.2073442]

>>2073435

>not having light-speed control over the menu

[Anonymous No.2073452]

>>2070637

Citizens of Earth has me hyped but they keep pushing back the release date. It's set at January 20th now. Hopefully that sticks.

>>2070626

I was just thinking, I haven't beat Mother 3 yet but knowing how it's in the future with Pokey got me thinking that there is/was a missed opportunity there to have Mother 2/Earthbound come full circle and with Mother 3 focusing on the future that Giygas fucked up to the point where they had to send someone back in time, Terminator style to stop him.

[Anonymous No.2073490]

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

What is up with the massive difficulty spike here? I steamrolled through the desert and only had to leave to heal up once during the Gold Mine, but all of a sudden I'm getting my ass beat over and over again in the Dept. Store.

>one cup of coffee can destroy my party in two hits
>musicas put Ness and Jeff to sleep while records hit like freight trains

[Anonymous No.2073506]

>>2073490
It's supposed to be hard, you're missing Paula

[Anonymous No.2073537]

>>2073506

Well yeah, but even having Paula around wouldn't change the fact that, even by themselves, enemies here hit WAY harder than in the previous area.

So unless I missed some super obvious grinding area between the Gold Mine and the Dept Store, I wouldn't think not having Paula in the party would cripple me that much.

[Anonymous No.2073550]

>>2073490
Moonside will be annoying as fuck as well.

[Anonymous No.2073554]

>>2073537
It's not really obvious, but there's a caterpillar enemy in the desert that gives you a ton of experience. If you catch it on its own, it always runs and you get the instant win, but if you fight it with other enemies it's super strong.

In the department store, I usually find myself just going up and down the escalators and trying to avoid the tougher enemies. I think they respawn every time you go up or down, so you might get lucky as to what enemy spawns.

[Anonymous No.2073672]

They're fun little games with a lot of personality. I've played all of them through a few times.

[Anonymous No.2073702]

>>2073554
OMG THEY STOLE THAT FROM DRAGONQUEST!!11

[Anonymous No.2073748]

They're pretty good games. Definitely have a unique feel about them. To me, it's the same sort of feeling you get from a home cooked meal, or as if the entire game is a friendly conversation with the people who made it. You really feel the loving presence of a friend throughout the game, especially in the music. That's how I feel about it anyway.

Mother 1 was a good RPG for its time. It's still good if you go in with the right state of mind. Earthbound is basically Super Mother, and they improved on the experience. I think all the simplicity and flaws with stuff like the inventory system were meant to recreate a nostalgic feeling for the Japanese audience. That's what the gameplay itself is about, a celebration of the experience of playing a video game as a child. If that means the games are childish, well yeah they are, but the games are for people of all ages because it's about recreating that experience. I'm not just pulling shit out of my ass, look at the Mother 2 Japanese advertising slogan: “Grownups, kids, and even your sister.”

The stories are actually rather interesting and emotional. There's always some unique twist that gives the story some punch. Queen Mary's backstory in the first game, for example. But overall, the games are a series of smaller scenarios strung together sometimes discontinuously.

[Anonymous No.2073962]

>>2073490
What level were you going in? You should've been at least over level 35.

[Anonymous No.2073963]

>>2073312
Chill nigga, I love Earthbound, I was just saying it's stupid. Fuck.

[Anonymous No.2073971]

OP here.

Unfortunately, most of these posts were a flame war because someone stated a negative opinion. That's not good, but whatever.

Just a quick update, I beat Earthbound (loved the ending), going into Mother 3. What can I expect? Is it Earthbound 2.0, or completely different?

[Anonymous No.2073978]

>>2073971
More linear than Earthbound, with a Chapter format. Probably because it was a handheld game. Not a bad thing.

It's different enough that you might like it a lot more or a lot less, can't really know til you play it.

Better combat system.

The tone is similar, if a bit more emotional. The fan translation nailed it.

[Anonymous No.2074126]

I'm playing Mother right now. Just got to Summers.

Has a lot of questionable design elements and is very frequently obtuse and weird for the sake of it, and the lack of direction can at times be frustrating.

All that said, I'm having a lot of fun with it. Videogames just don't get made. Not now. Not then. That alone is a reason to celebrate it.

I fought a hippie that kept using a ruler instead of attacking. He dropped the ruler and when I tried to use it I was informed that I could now determine the length of things easily.

I think that sums up Earthbound nicely.

[Anonymous No.2074129]

>>2074126
>Videogames like this.

Fuck, I'm Horse_Ebooks all of the sudden.

[Anonymous No.2074219]

>>2073978

How come no has made a negative man wujack feels yet?

[Anonymous No.2074224]

>>2074219
Because that shit's cancerous as fuck

[Anonymous No.2074636]

>>2073490
The only difficult part of the game. Except for the PK Starstorm-spamming starmen at the end.

[Anonymous No.2074709]

>>2074636
>>2074636

Getting through Peaceful Rest Valley with just Ness was pretty difficult as well.

[Anonymous No.2075356]

>>2074709
It's not so bad if you avoid Territorial Oaks or run from them

and keep a Cold Remedy or two

[Anonymous No.2075361]

I keep seeing Mother threads and now want to replay EarthBound even though I already have a massive backlog

shit

[Anonymous No.2075362]

>>2075356
all you have to do is finish the fight before Ness's HP rolls down too much. That's not hard.

[Anonymous No.2075670]

>>2074636
That wasn't difficult. Set up a PSI Shield Omega and they kill themselves.
>>2074709
Territorial Oaks are the only hard thing, and even then, just kill them last so you can finish the fight and the HP will stop rolling.

[Anonymous No.2075678]

>>2075362
>>2075670
It's risky though. Sometimes you get extra messages which means more frames which means more time for the HP to roll down. I can't remember if it's SMAAASH hits or what but I know it always comes close for me.

[Anonymous No.2075817]

>>2075678
Running away is an option too, you know.

[Anonymous No.2075819]

>>2075817
see >>2075356
>or run from them

[Anonymous No.2075821]

>>2075819
Well, there ya go. Besides all that, they move fairly slow.

[Anonymous No.2075838]

You can also use basically any kind of healing to stop the counter before you take the whole damage

Its a little bit annoying that the game urges you to rush through battle menus when the flavor text is so fun to read

[Anonymous No.2076143]

>>2072115
Why is the guy from Ultimate Muscle there?

[Anonymous No.2076149]

>>2073978
Jesus Christ what's Negative Mans problem?

[Anonymous No.2076924]

>>2074709
>bring 2 teddy bears
>walk enemies off the screen
>get the hard hat
>go straight to the exit
>run from Territorial Oaks
>skip sandwiches are worthless, buy more bears

Easy as pie.

[Anonymous No.2077295]

>>2076149
He's just negative, man.

[Anonymous No.2077326]

I want to replay Earthbound now

I have the cart. But the battery is dead and I don't have access to my SNES for a while.

Should I wait, and play it on the console, and play through it in one sitting? Or just emulate it now and still probably play through it in one sitting

[Anonymous No.2077392]

I did it, I beat EarthBound! And I got to help!

I have to say though, it seems like Paula was the hero in the end, not Ness.

Also, after years of buildup, Giygas wasn't nearly as scary as the internet made it out to be.

Also also, fuck Pokey, that fat sack of shit.

[Anonymous No.2077415]

>>2077392
Hey bro we got spoilers for a reason

also, don't you think YOU are the hero in the end, not Paula or Ness? assuming you entered your own name in that one part

[Anonymous No.2077437]

I want this on a poster or a t-shirt.

[Anonymous No.2077501]

>>2073490
this is exactly why I gave up on beating the game. Before someone says "gitgud", it's not because I couldn't, I just didn't feel motivated to continue. The game was pretty fun until then, it just made me rage so bad when I got so easily killed. Also, I hate how sometimes you just beat a boss in like 2 hits and sometimes you die on the first turn and do barely any damage.
Don't get me wrong, I loved the game up to that point, it's not bad by any means but that part is a big flaw.

[Anonymous No.2077615]

>>2077501
It gets hard because Paula is gone.
>>2077437
You and me both.
>>2077392
Them spoilers. Some people haven't played the game.

[Anonymous No.2077646]

Earthbound is the grandpappy of contemporary hipster indie games that go style and pop culture references over substance. Aside from charm and humor, EB has very little to offer. Dull and bland combat, no customization whatsoever, nothing stands out about it as a game. Even the appeal of its charm, humor and plot is questionable, because characters are flat, the story doesn't feel to coherent, and the zany humor and artstyle are really up to personal liking.

You can say, "you should have played it as a kid. You're basically playing Calvin and Hobbes but YOU are the main character!" but it's not a defence of a game's qualities. My favourite childhood game was the first Breath of Fire. I sank literally hundreds of hours into beating it over and over. I have very fond memories of the game, its story and characters. But replaying it today, I can honestly say that it is not a very good game, and the plot and the characters that have captivated me as a kid are actually flat, dull and generic. But that's probably I am not really exposed to a loud and obnoxious fandom fawning about how BoF is so deep and is the best game ever on every corner of the internet.

Earthbound is a very mediocre game with a style that some may find charming. Nothing more, nothing less. The existance of such a devoted and militant fandom for it baffles me, to be honest.

[Anonymous No.2077670]

>>2077646

I agree Earthbound's popularity went off the charts in the past couple years, but I still think it's a good game. And I played it as an adult, like 4 years ago, so I hold no childhood nostalgia for it.

I also never actually saw any EB fan claiming EB is "the best game ever", rather they say "oh, you don't like it? Maybe it's not your thing, then".
The problem is when people like you, who didn't like the game, read EB fans talking about how much they like the game. They never actually say "it is the best game ever", but the way they talk about it and how much they show the love for the game, it makes you think that they're saying it's the best game ever, and thus your form a contrarian opinion about EB and are almost as annoying (or more) as obsessive EB fans.

Basically, obsessive EB fans are annoying, but anti-EB dudes are also annoying.

[Anonymous No.2077686]

>>2077646
Point to anyone in this thread who says Earthbound is the best game ever. Heck, I don't even think the guys on Starman say it's the best game ever.

Sure, a lot of people say it's their favorite game, and that's their opinion. If you have a problem with someone saying that, there may be something wrong with you.

[Anonymous No.2080186]

>>2070910
>Its cool to hate on earthbound because of how popular it is

>just accept that some people like it and some dont

Yeah. Those two things don't add up.

[Anonymous No.2081327]

>>2077686
The Game Theorist guy thinks it's the best game ever, along with Chrono Trigger.

[Anonymous No.2081641]

>>2077686
I'll say it's the best game ever, if only to be contrarian.

But of course, the actual best game ever is Mother 3

[Anonymous No.2081654]

>>2081327
not really.

I wouldn't say that about Chrono Trigger at least.

I'd say Earthbound, no rather the Mother series as a whole is the best thing in videogames to do the thing that it does. Its the best game in the format of a Japanese RPG played with little colorful animations of characters on a screen saying stuff. That weird combination of something like a movie or a play and the written word from something resembling actual literature that you're able to sort of almost reach out and touch by moving one of the characters around.

It's sort of like how Mirror's Edge is the best game about simulating an exciting activity a person might take part in in first person by using a handheld controller and presenting a virtual environment on a TV screen.

[Anonymous No.2082593]

>mfw playing Chapter 3 in Mother 3
No wonder this game never got localized. Shit's depressing as fuck.

[Anonymous No.2083047]

>>2082593
it only gets better

by the end of that game I totally lost it

[Anonymous No.2083175]

>>2082593
>>2083047
Don't wanna be that guy and I know it's just 2 posts but Mother 3 is not retro. Please do not talk about it.

[Anonymous No.2083183]

>>2083175

too late, you're that guy

[Anonymous No.2083328]

>>2083175
Please don't reference I Wanna Be The Guy this is a Mother thread please stay on topic that's not even retro

[Anonymous No.2085024]

>>2077646
That's your opinion. Your free to express it. Earthbound may not be your thing but that doesn't lessen its quality or make it so that other people should not enjoy it.

[Anonymous No.2085026]

I started re-playing Earthbound recently after a yearning for some retro gaming. Growing up I absolutely hated Earthbound for just.. seeming too bland. Now I really enjoy the aesthetic. I think Yumme Nikki may have had something to do with it.

Can anyone give me some early game tips?
Also, the furthest I've gotten in the past was the second town, where I was blocked off by some sort of square thing blocking a pathway. Kinda like the trees in the pokemon games where you have to have a pokemon use "cut". Assuming I've described that properly, can anyone tell me how to get passed it?

[Anonymous No.2085029]

>>2085026
I don't know how much you want spoiled, but explore all of Twoson. There are a couple houses of interest that will help you.

[Anonymous No.2085048]

>>2085029
>tfw heading to Twoson as I write this

[Anonymous No.2085068]

I only played Earthbound. Which one is best to play next?

[Anonymous No.2085089]

>>2085068
Earthbound Zero then Mother 3 if you can find the good version of the translation

the starman translation is

its just not as good as the other one lets just leave it at that

[Anonymous No.2085103]

>>2085068
Either game is fine. For Mother 1, play the GBA version (Mother 1+2) with the fan translation. The Mother 3 fan translation is great, I have no idea what >>2085089 is talking about

[Anonymous No.2085106]

>>2085103
There's just a different translation of Mother 3 than the one you're thinking of. A better one. It's kind of hard to find tho

[Anonymous No.2085258]

>>2070626
I have never played all the way through the first two but mother 3 rattled me.

I simply love the game. I love the world. It sucks me in when I play.

I see mother 3 like others see a movie. I can't really get into movies.

[Anonymous No.2085263]

Amblyzancla is a genus of moths of the Yponomeutidae family.

[Anonymous No.2085271]

>>2085106
Really? This is news to me. I thought that Tomato's translation was pretty good, so I'd be surprised to hear that a better one existed that wasn't at all well-known.

[Anonymous No.2085332]

>>2085089
>>2085103
Thanks, I guess I'll check out the original mother first.

[Anonymous No.2085353]

Thomas Miller Bell (January 11, 1923 in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada – November 12, 1996) was a Canadian politician, lawyer and barrister.

[Anonymous No.2085487]

>>2085271
This other person doesn't know what they're talking about. There's a revision of Tomato's translation in the works, which he actually helped with to some extent, but it's not complete yet.

From Tomato's site:
http://earthboundcentral.com/2014/10/a-mother-3-script-rewrite-project-attacks/

[Anonymous No.2085652]

>>2085487
no the better one came out about a day or two earlier than tomato's

[Anonymous No.2085795]

>>2085652
You know how much work went into making a working translation? It was like a solid year's work of translating, hacking etc. There's no way in hell someone else secretly did all this work, especially knowing that someone else was doing it first. There's going to be different English translations now that Tomato released the tools for creating new language translations and whatnot.

[Anonymous No.2085806]

>>2073702
Dragon Quest has a mall with escalators?

[Anonymous No.2085858]

>>2085806
The Criminal Caterpillar is basically the same thing as Metal Slimes in Dragon Quest.

[Anonymous No.2085884]

>>2072114
Bear her giant pussy?

[Anonymous No.2085885]

>>2072397
>Great games fucking terrible fan base. Anyone who has been to Starmen.net is aware of this. It is autism unleashed.

I remember wasting so much time trying to argue with people there when I was 15 and 16.

[Anonymous No.2085892]

>>2085858
Well the whole franchise was inspired by Dragon Quest. Itoi played it when he was sick in bed as a kid, so he wanted to make a game like it. (I heard that a long time ago maybe google it if you want to find a source so it doesn't sound like bullshit I made up.)

[Anonymous No.2085894]

>>2077392
>Also, after years of buildup, Giygas wasn't nearly as scary as the internet made it out to be.

I played the game when I was in my teens for the first time, I never got to Giygas until i was an adult and replayed it. That shit must be terrifying when you're in the single digits.

[Anonymous No.2085897]

>>2077670
I hate how people think I'm like that because I love Earthbound. It's like that for a few other things I love on 4chan too, even on /m/. I just love what I love.

[Anonymous No.2085903]

>>2085892
>Itoi played it when he was sick in bed as a kid
He was 38 when the first Dragon Quest game was released.

[Anonymous No.2085906]

>>2085026
>I think Yumme Nikki may have had something to do with it.

I loved the entire Mother part of FC World.

[Anonymous No.2085908]

>>2085903

I guess I'm full of shit then. I wish I knew where I read that.

[Anonymous No.2085909]

>>2085903
Also, Mother 1 came out only 3 years after Dragon Quest I.

[Anonymous No.2085942]

>>2077646
jeez dude this is like your 3rd comment about pop culture references
EB has some beatles references and a big reference to the blues brothers, but most of the humour is based around wordplay and pythonesque absurdism

i understand that you've got a bee in your bonnet about 'pop culture references' but if you want to critique earthbound, why not mention the sparse animation, clunky controls, gimmicky but ultimately shallow battle system, poor inventory or sporadic difficulty curve?

i will answer that question: you didn't finish earthbound. you didn't play much of it. you ignored the game's negative points and didn't understand its merits. you are a true philistine in every sense of the word.

[Anonymous No.2086128]

>>2085942
I swear it must be the same loser with too much time on his hands in every Earthbound thread talking shit. He never has any arguments other than "It has pop culture references" and "It's similar to Dragon Quest". I'm guessing he's just one of those people who loves to listen to himself talk.

[Anonymous No.2086260]

I'm actually playing through Earthbound right now.

It's alright so far. However, I had to look up a guide to realize I ended up missing two of the Your Sanctuary locations (the one in Happy Happy Village and Saturn Valley).

I guess I didn't consider looking for them since the game at least told me to go find Giant's Step. After that I didn't really find hints as to where the others ones are supposed to be (except at Happy Happy Village when you talk to the kid next to the cave, which I'll take as my fault somewhat.), since the game didn't try to stop me from advancing or try to direct me to where I needed to go.

It kinda irked me, but not by too much.

[Anonymous No.2086295]

>>2070948
Underrated gif

[Anonymous No.2086604]

>>2085795
except they did so

not everybody works for fame and recognition

[Anonymous No.2086621]

Something I feel many people fail to realize is that the Mother games, and Mother 2 in particular, are meant to be satirical.
Earthbound parodies numerous RPG tropes: items that do nothing like the ruler and protractor (similar to how in some older RPGs glitches would render certain items useless), Macguffin-type story items like the pencil-eraser that serve as a contrived solution to a puzzle or obstacle, enemies with comical attacks, NPCs that give the player useless (but often hilarious) bits of information, and a plot that is, in my opinion, convoluted and somewhat incomprehensible on purpose in mockery of the many RPGs with complicated story lines that were coming out at the time.
Within that framework of "RPG that pokes fun at RPGs", however, is a genuine and touching story about a boy coming of age in a bizzare, and sometimes even scary world that doesn't always make sense. It's a theme that speaks to everyone on some level, because we had all been there before, or were going through it at the time, when we played the game.
The Mother games have their faults; the combat, although entertaining, is not what I would call strategic. But people who criticize the plot for being "Bad" or the characters for being "Boring Cardboard Cutouts" are missing the point: you might as well criticize Monty Python for being silly.

[Anonymous No.2086637]

>>2086621
people with autism don't understand satire anon

[Anonymous No.2087021]

>>2085906
Yumme Nikki is pretty awesome. I've been meaning to replay it again but I keep putting it off. Thankfully I have something that feels similar and fresh to replace it (Earthbound).

[Anonymous No.2087689]

Was just playing Star Fox 64, and the map music reminded me of the battle with dangerous foe track from Mother 1.

Especially from 0:35 to 1:00 when it goes back to the Star Fox leitmotif
http://youtu.be/RKHC839jqmM?t=35s

Mother 1 track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO6MwfIW3fE

[Anonymous No.2087705]

>>2087689
Also reminiscient of the music for Bowser's Castle in Super Mario Bros. isn't it?

[Anonymous No.2087738]

>>2087705

Yeah, at first it reminded me of Bowser's castle music, not sure which one, but then I started thinking where I heard that chord progression before and then I remembered, it was that Mother battle music.

[Anonymous No.2088919]

So I'm in Twoson. What is the best method of recovering at this point? I don't want to keep running back to my house, and i don't have enough money to spend at the hotels.

[Anonymous No.2088951]

>>2088919
Lifeup and butterflies to restore the PP you use is your other option.