It's pretty well known at this point that Toby Fox's Undertale took quite a bit of inspiration from the Mother / Earthbound series. Heck, you only need to play Undertale for 5 minutes to see the similarities! Fox's love for the Mother games goes all the way back to his high school days, during which he created ROM hacks such as Earthbound: The Halloween Hack.
Given his adoration of the Mother series, Fox naturally had aspirations of contributing to a potential new game, and even toyed with the idea of asking its creator, Shigesato Itoi, about whether or not he wanted to see a new game come to fruition. Ultimately, after hearing what Ito had to say on the success of Undertale, Fox chose not to bring the subject up.
Courtesy of YouTube channel Mother Forever, here's what Fox had to say on the matter:
"I actually wanted to see if [Ito] had any interest in seeing another game in the Mother series, even if someone made it without him. Because if so, I'd gladly give it my all to help out in any way that I could. However, he seemed really happy with the success of Mother-inspired games like Undertale and told me something like, "hey, you should make Undertale 2!". So in the end I never asked about that, and personally, meeting him made me realise that no one else could make Mother 4 anyway."
You can check out in the full video below. In our opinion, we reckon the Mother series is pretty much done now. Despite Nintendo recently launching the first two games on the Nintendo Switch Online service, we've yet to see an official western release of Mother 3 (16 years later, mind!). The odds of Mother 4 getting developed anytime soon seem slim, at best. While it would be fantastic to see the likes of Toby Fox work on such a project, we think he made the right call here.
What do you think of a potential Mother 4 game made by Toby Fox? Share your thoughts in the usual place!
[source youtube.com, via gonintendo.com]
Comments 26
We still need Mother 3 on Switch, please. But yeah, any more games are welcome. I don't really care who creates them, as long as Shigesato Itoi is involved.
I wish mother 3 was on the switch
Ah yes because those two games are easily on par with each other
I doubt it's ever going to happen because I'm pretty sure Itoi at one point said that the Mother series is effectively complete. Right now I think they should find a way to properly deliver the full series to fans outside of Japan as well, including Mother 3.
NSO GBA hopefully? Though I think most people would prefer buying it.
Cool to hear Itoi is happy with the influence of his series and how he’s continually encouraging the originality of his fans. The “Hey, you should make Undertale 2!” line is especially telling for me; he seems like he’s finished his story and is satisfied with the conclusion, and now he wants fans to tell their own stories.
The Mother trilogy is honestly perfect as it is and doesn’t really need a 4th entry. I think this was the right call, its influence can be seen in other great games like Undertale and Omori.
@nessisonett agree totally. I don’t think people want more Mother, just more experiences that remind them of Mother, and on that front, we live in the best timeline.
Asking for Mother 3 localization and Mother 4 is like asking for Persona on Switch. It's not happening.
mother definitely has the potential to be an on going series. it doesnt even need to connect each game together as long as the gameplay and spirit is still there, but the trilogy we got is near perfect and itoi has been done with the series for a long time
i can respect the fact he wants us to move on to new games and inspirations the same way he has. the most we can hope for now are releases and remakes
Awesome hope Nintendo bring mother 3 to switch one day, love that game so much
@IronMan30 Your comment will probably age poorly…
This is why I respect Itoi as a fellow author; he's told the story he wanted to tell, and that's the end of it.
The industry will always clamor for sequels, because a sequel to a hit is essentially a good bet to garner more income, but it's not the same for writing; sometimes a story is complete, and it should be left as such.
Mother had a good run as a trilogy. Let it be.
Why not? And a Mother 3 on Switch could be cool.
really big spoilers!
@Browny the way 2 tied into 3 was 😚👌
Looking at that ending he really wanted us to imagine what would happen after it ourselves!
(although it's a shame we can't cary over lyrical themes or lore this way! )
@-Juice- I'd actually love to be wrong on all counts, but Mother 4 seems like a safe bet for not happening. It's basically the equivalent of saying the sun will rise.
Of course this thread derailed into Mother 3, haha. Even if it did get localized they would have to cut a LOT of content out so it’s probably best it stays like this.
Or you could help yourself by making your own game. That just strikes me as super pretentious, just make undertale 2
How would he help make a game the creator doesn’t think needs to exist.
Mother is done. but if Itoi ever worked on another project unrelated to Mother, and had Toby involved, now that'd be cool
EarthBound is my favorite game of all time and I consider myself a huge Mother fan, but we're in 2022 now and people need to understand the series is done. I hoped for a Mother 4 or a Mother 3 official translation for many years but it's not happening. At this point I'm just happy to have rereleases of EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings.
@IronMan30 Oh I wasn’t talking about Mother. I was referring to the Persona series on switch.
@-Juice- I know, I was still talking about that. I hope I'm wrong about it.
Maybe he should donate some time to Oddity so it might be out before 2122
@IronMan30 @-Juice- like clockwork, lmao
@DashKappei yep, glad to be wrong. Very glad, in fact.
Now if only Nintendo would prove me wrong about Mother/Earthbound.
@AstralSoul same. Earthbound and Mother 3 have been a huge part of my life and I am really sad to see that the series is over. The least we could hope for is Oddity (if any of you still remember that) releasing, or a remaster and official translation of Mother 3.
I'm glad that the first two titles are on switch, and it's now easily accessible to anyone who has NSO, which is already huge.
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