Topic: Mother (Earthbound) series appreciation thread

Hello all. I wanted to make this thread for all the fans of Shigesato Itoi and his beloved Mother series of games. This is a thread dedicated to discussion of all three games, their characters, plot, music, and humor.

If users would like to comment on fan projects, that is fine with me, but I hope to mainly discuss the official series and merchandise.

To be honest, I like all three games, and have played them all, but my favorite by far is Mother 3.

Creating this discussion wasn't brought on by anything specific, as I wanted to for a while, but I had spotted this rumor going around and wanted to share it.

http://forum.starmen.net/forum/Games/Mother2/Earthbound-Forev...

Something like this is likely to happen eventually, and the timing would fit with Itoi's rumored retiring, as well as the 10 year anniversary of the most recent game. I'm very sceptical though. Anyway, looking forward to a nice discussion.

Okay, I'll start: I'm not entirely sure whether I like Mother 3 or Earthbound more. I can't really decide.

I want to see a Mother 3DS collection (or individual games) so badly it hurts.

I played Earhbound of about 2 hours once and didn't like it. For some reason though, something compelled me to pick it up again, so I did, and HOLY CRAP. It is now on my top 3 favorite games of all time list!

That reminds me, I'm gonna have to play it again, soon. But first there's some other things I wanna get done. Hopefully it won't take too long.

I still think playing Mother 3 was the best decision I've made all year. Buying EarthBound was another great moment of this year. Need to beat it, though.

I just started playing Earthbound almost a week ago. I've just left M••n•i•e (redacted characters to prevent possible spoilers).

I really love this game. It's an excellent marriage of gameplay with narrative. Right off the bat, I was impressed with how you basically play the game by advancing the story, much moreso than in most games that also tend to have a lot of arbitrary content. It's also impressive how little in the game is truly arbitrary, though a lot of the game is absurdist, so maybe that's not the most meaningful observation. The music, and tone of the game are very easy to like. I'm really enjoying it.

Another thing that this game does incredibly well is playing with the players expectations. It's iteresting to me because it's something I never really thought much about in the context of a video game, but now that I have, I see that it's really rare and wish more games would go for that approach.

Another interesting thing to me is Majora's Mask seems it might have taken some cues directly from this game. The player having to communicate with characters to advance the story in Majora's Mask or collect most of the items bears some similarity to Earthbound. Those elements were present in passed games, but not anywhere near the same degree. It's an aproach I think Zelda should go for again at some point.

I've been waiting for official word on Mother 3 before I play it. I tried the fan translation for a couple of hours, though it was as awesome as I hoped it would be, but in the end I really want to play an official version, so I put it on hold.

If we don't get an announcement of Mother 3 for the Wii U VC in the next few directs, I think I'll just go for the full experience in the fan translation.

And as for Earthbound itself, amazing, amazing game. I never really replay RPGs, but I've finished Earthbound four times now (the first back in the SNES days, the latest just this year on my Wii U).

A new Earthbound game is at the top of my Nintendo wishlist, although that Earthbound Forever rumor coming true would make me quite excited too.

I just watches a series of youtube videos about the history of the Mother series which was interesting. If you are interested in seeing it just look for "Clan of the the Grey Wolf" on Youtube or "16 bit Gems Mother series". Its very interesting and I learned stuff about the game that I didn't know.

I played the game back on the SNES back in the day (Yes I still have my copy along with the strat guide and big box) and beat it then. I was so glad when it came out on the Wii U VC that I bought it immediately just in case for some odd reason it was pulled later on like TMNT or the DKC trilogy on the Wii VC. Stil one of my favorite RPGS to play.

I want to play the other 2 in the series but I have to go through other channels to play them but I am just to lazy right now to look for translation patches and stuff like that lol.

Honestly, its well worth it to just go with the fan translation. I have an actual copy of Mother 3 and speak Japanese, so I never had to worry about that, but I heard its well done.

@ricklongo I would go with the fan translation, as the game has already been out 8 years now, and I don't see it all of a sudden coming out. I would love this rumor to be true, and if it is then everybody gets to enjoy the game the right way finally.

Itoi has stated many times that Mother 3 ends the series. I won't even deal with spoilers but anyone who played it knows that the ending is definite.

I'm one of rares french to got a copy of Mother 3 modified in US version. This third episode is really awesome, believe me.

@Tsuchinoko Well, it wouldn't be "all of a sudden"; Earthbound was released on the Virtual Console to enduring success in 2013. Almost two years later, it's still a fixture of the weekly eShop Top 20, and it's the sixth best-selling digital-only game in the entire Wii U library. Plus, there was the tease during last E3... right after the Game Boy Advance Virtual Console became a thing. I think it's quite possible that a release is on the cards for the near future.

As for sequels, well, I'm pretty sure we will never get any, but that's because Itoi doesn't feel like it, not because of plot concerns (even if, like I said, I haven't finished Mother 3 yet). I don't think anything happening at the end of Mother 3 would qualify as an 100% definite proof, plot-wise; after all, the Mother games all feature only a few aspects linking their plots together. If Itoi suddenly felt like it, I'm pretty positive a new version could have been made, taking place in a different land/world/reality altogether.

Play the game, you'll know what I'm talking about. It's a perfect ending not just for the game, but the series. He makes it very clear what his intentions are.

And as for the VC, it kinda would be a bit of a surprise, since it would be a rare instance of them translating a very plot and text heavy game for the virtual console. Its more likely that they would remake it and release it internationally, just like Final Fantasy III and the first Fire Emblem.

Oh I bet its well worth it, I guess I shouldn't have used the word lazy I am just more like busy lol. Right now I have so many games to play and finish that when I do get a chance to play I just want to pop a game in and start playing. I really dont want to have to do a google search to find a patch which I am sure is easy enough and I am just making it more complicated. One of these days I will get to it though. You can bet on that.

I can understand that. I guess that's why it took me so long to finish my copy, as its a GBA game and I had to pull out the old dusty DS. Plus I did move like 3 times in the past two years.

Just know that the game is totally worth it. Its become my favorite.

the mother/earthbound godfather has arrived!

We are long overdue. And even if this specific collection isn't happening, doesn't it seem like something that would come out eventually?

^I've been saying they should do this for two years now, so yes.

Thought I'd share.

Mother 3 Love Theme piano version

For the Earthbound/Mother 2 fans

Because I Love You orchestral version