EarthBound/Mother Topic

[Toki_Hakurei]

We are going to talk about the first RPG series of video games that didn't use dragons, knights, and anything else that had to do with medieval fantasy. Instead of swords you use baseball bats, frying pans, yo-yos, and even guns. Though each game has a completely different protagonist, all three games are tied together by the final bosses.

 

 

 

If you want to see more of this game, there is a HUGE fansite that not only gives information on each game, but also has fanart, walkthroughs for each game, a fan translation for Mother 3, comics, videos, and a radio show. This site will be your main source of information on the EarthBound/Mother series.

 

http://www.starmen.net/

 

 

 

 

Ness (left) and Lucas (right) as seen in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

 

[hide=About Earthbound Zero/Mother for the NES]

 

Mother (EarthBound Zero) is a console role-playing game developed by Ape, Inc. and Nintendo Tokyo R&D Products and published by Nintendo for the Famicom video game console. It was designed and directed by Shigesato Itoi and produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, with music by Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka. It is the first game in the EarthBound video game series, and was never released outside of Japan. Mother tells the story of Ninten, a 12-year-old boy with psionic powers who journeys around the world to collect eight melodies in order to save the planet from an evil race of mind-controlling aliens.

 

 

 

Mother's gameplay is divided into two main parts: field maps and the game's battle system. Mother does not use a small-scale overworld map and instead connects towns, dungeons, and other places together by large outdoor areas. When in towns on the field map, players can talk with other non-playable characters, go to stores to buy equipment or items, rest in hotels, or enter other various buildings. By using any telephone in the game, Ninten can talk to his dad, who deposits money into Ninten's bank account and offers to record his progress.

 

 

 

When outside of towns on the field map or inside dungeons, the party will be attacked by enemies, at which point the game shifts into its battle system. When in battle, the game switches to a first-person view, only showing the enemies and a menu system used to issue commands. Actions are chosen for each character by the player, and then characters and enemies take turns doing them in an order determined by their speed statistics. Winning battles awards experience points, which characters require to level up. Leveling up increases a character's stats and lets them learn more abilities. If a character loses all of their hit points, they will die and the player must go to a hospital and pay to revive them. If every character dies, no progress is lost, but the party is transported back to the last area they saved at, only Ninten is left alive, and the amount of money they had on hand is halved.

 

 

 

Mother tells the story of Ninten, a 12-year-old boy with psionic powers who journeys around the world to collect eight melodies in order to save the planet from an evil race of mind-controlling aliens. Along the way he is joined by three friends; a young boy tormented at his school for being a nerdy genius, a girl whose mother mysteriously went missing, and a gang leader whose parents were murdered. They meet many unusual characters and visit strange settings before ultimately confronting the leader of the aliens, Gyiyg (known as Giygas outside Japan).

 

 

 

Ninten's power, PSI, was utilized by an alien race that abducted George and Maria, his great-grandmother and great-grandfather. George stole the secrets to the power while living among the aliens, and upon his return to Earth attempted to research it further and spread the research. Of the four playable characters, Ninten, possessed it due to being the great-grandson of George, while Ana, the only female in your team, had developed her PSI powers on her own, and became famous in her hometown, Snowman, for having done so.

 

 

 

Though George and Maria were not mistreated while in captivity of the aliens (Due to Maria taking care of an alien named Gyiyg [Giygas in the English version of EarthBound]), Gyiyg sought revenge on George for stealing the secrets of PSI, and subsequently launched an invasion of the planet Earth.

 

 

 

Mother was successful in Japan, selling approximately 400,000 copies. In two polls conducted by Famitsu, it was rated as the 9th best game on the Famicom and the 38th best game of all time. The game was listed as the fourth most-wanted Virtual Console release in a poll in the June 2008 issue of Nintendo Power, and in the following issue it moved up to second most-wanted.

 

 

 

Some highlights of the game:

 

 

 

* being attacked by your own lamp

 

* fighting against an alien who controls zoo animals

 

* meeting a cat who swims on the ground

 

* finding one of your allies in a trash can

 

* having people sneeze on you to give you colds

 

* riding around in an army tank in the desert and destroying a giant robot to reach a cave full of monkeys[/hide]

 

[hide=About EarthBound/Mother 2 for the SNES]

 

EarthBound is a role-playing video game (RPG) designed by Shigesato Itoi for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The title was developed by Ape, Inc. and HAL Laboratory as a sequel to the Japan-only title, Mother. EarthBound was published by Nintendo and released in Japan on August 27, 1994, and months later in North America on June 1, 1995. Despite being successful in Japan, the American version was released to a poor commercial response. Years later, the game is now lauded by gamers for its humorous depictions of American culture and parody of the RPG genre, and has since become a cult classic.

 

 

 

Taking place in a modern day world, players assume the role of a young boy named Ness who awakens to discover a meteor has plummeted to the earth near his home. Upon investigating the meteor, Ness encounters an insect-like alien named Buzz Buzz who claims to be from the future. Buzz Buzz proceeds to tell Ness that an evil alien, named Giygas, has overtaken the world in the future and that Ness must undertake a journey to prevent this event. However, this won't be easy, because Ness's neighbor, Pokey, is in on Giygas plans through the majority of the story.

 

 

 

EarthBound features many traditional RPG elements; the player controls a party of characters who travel through the game's two dimensional world, which is composed of villages, cities, and dungeons. Along the way, battles are fought against enemies, after which, the party receives experience points for victories. If enough experience points are acquired, a character's level will increase. This increases the character's attributes, like strength, defense, and health. EarthBound breaks traditional RPG features by not utilizing an overworld map. Instead, the world is entirely seamless, with no differentiation between towns and the outside world. Another non-traditional element is the perspective used for the world. The game uses oblique projection, while most 2-D RPGs use a "top down" view on a grid or an isometric perspective.

 

 

 

EarthBound does not utilize random encounters. When physical contact occurs between a character and an enemy, the screen switches to battle mode. In combat, characters and enemies possess a certain amount of hit points (HP). Blows to an enemy reduces the amount of HP. Once an enemy's HP reaches zero, they are defeated. In battle, the player is allowed to choose specific actions for their characters. These actions can include attacking, healing, or the use of items. Characters can also use special psionic attacks that require psychic points (PP). Once each character is assigned a command, the characters and enemies perform their actions in a set order, determined by character speed. Whenever a character receives damage, the HP box gradually "rolls" down, similar to an odometer. This allows players an opportunity to heal the character or win the battle before the counter hits zero, after which the character is knocked unconscious (although if the counter reaches zero as the battle is won, it will be set to 1 instead and the character will survive). If all characters are rendered unconscious, the game ends. Because battles are not random, tactical advantages can be gained. If the player physically contacts an enemy from behind, the player is given a first-strike priority. However, this also applies to enemies, who can also engage the party from behind. Additionally, as Ness and his friends become stronger, battles with weaker enemies are eventually won automatically, forgoing the battle sequence.

 

 

 

EarthBound takes place on Earth in the year 199X. Throughout the game, four characters, known as the Chosen Four, come to compose the party in the game; Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo. Ness remains the lead character, a silent protagonist, for the entirety of the story. He is a young boy from Onett and is characterized by his love of baseball. He also possesses psychic abilities strong enough to affect cosmic events. Paula is the second main character in the game. She is a young girl from Twoson where her mother runs a preschool out of their home. Like Ness, she also possesses powerful psychic abilities. Jeff, the third character to join the party, is a young boy who resides at a boarding school in the northern country of Winters. The son of the famed professor Dr. Andonuts, Jeff is a child prodigy who can fix almost anything. The last character to be acquired is Poo. He is the oldest of the group, a residing prince from the distant land of Dalaam. He is presented as a powerful martial arts master.

 

 

 

EarthBound is regarded by critics as one of the greatest RPGs on the SNES, as well as one of the best of the 1990s. The game has also become a cult classic and possesses substantial fanbases in both Japan and America. As a result, the game regularly appears on readers' choice polls in both countries. In a 2005 readers' choice poll of the top 99 best games of all time conducted by IGN, EarthBound was voted 46th on the list. A year later, IGN conducted a similar readers' choice poll where EarthBound moved up to be 33rd on the list. The game has also appeared on lists conducted by the Japanese. In a 2006 readers' poll conducted by Famitsu magazine, the game was voted the 37th best game of all time on a list of 100 titles.

 

 

 

Some highlights of the game:

 

 

 

* obsessive-compulsive police roadblocks

 

* bribing crooked politicians

 

* saving a girl kidnapped by a cult obsessed with the color blue

 

* solving a town's zombie problem

 

* freeing a race of aliens enslaved by a talking pile of puke

 

* fighting hippies with toothbrushes

 

* wandering inside a psychedelic minus-world ruled by an evil statue

 

* being taught by a talking monkey how to teleport

 

* having your soul transplanted into the body of a robot in order to facilitate time travel[/hide]

 

[hide=About EarthBound 2/Mother 3 for the GBA. (NOTE]

 

Mother 3 is a role-playing video game for the Game Boy Advance handheld game console, developed by HAL Laboratory and Brownie Brown, published by Nintendo. It is the third video game in the Mother series of video games. It was announced in June 2003 during a Mother 1 + 2 television commercial, though details of its development were kept secret. Up until its release, the game remained near the top of Famitsu's most wanted games list. Immediately before its release, Mother 3 was the most wanted game in Japan according to Weekly Famitsu.

 

 

 

Mother 3 starts out very differently from the first two Mother games. The game is set up into eight different chapters. Instead of focusing on a group of children, it chronicles the story and adventures of Lucas and his family, and the story switches perspective during each chapter. Nowhere Island also changes dramatically due to the influence of the Pig Mask Army, transforming from a simple low-tech rural society to a more modern 21st Century infrastructure that's similar to the first two Mother games (hence the game's theme of nature vs. technology). The game also features a more traditional top-down RPG perspective, instead of the oblique projection used in the first two games.

 

 

 

Once again, the game retains the Dragon Quest-style battle system Mother and EarthBound had (although this time at a much quicker pace), but Mother 3 adds an extra twist in the form of the Music combo system. Depending on how well the player presses the A Button in-sync to the lead enemy's "theme" (each enemy has their own respective beat, some even possessing variable tempos), he or she can perform up to 16 hits of damaging combos on the game's enemies. (The game also has an option of letting the player practice Music combos on enemies they have already fought, once they gain a certain item. Tempos can also be more easily heard in the form of a "heartbeat" when the enemy is asleep.) Enemies are still visible on the field, and can still be approached from behind for a surprise attack (along with the extra added detail of seeing behind an enemy.) The game also retains the rolling HP/PP odometers from the previous game, enabling the player to heal before the counter rolls to 0. In Mother 3, the HP odometer scrolls more slowly than the previous game and can be slowed further by defending however, unlike Mother 2, the player will still be technically 'dead' if the HP odometer scrolls to zero. A returning addition from the original Mother is the ability to run, by holding and releasing the B Button the player can not only reach areas quicker, but also smash into breakable objects and also stun enemies significantly weaker than the party, replacing the previous game's ability to instantly defeat weak enemies without entering battle. Mother 3 also abandons saving the game by phone in favor of Save Frogs, which are abundant and appear at various areas in the game. Currency (which doesn't come into play until Chapter 4) comes in the form of DP (Dragon Power), which the player can deposit/transfer from Save Frogs.

 

 

 

Unlike the first two games, the focus is no longer on a group of children. Some chapters put completely different characters in the protagonistic role: In one chapter the player controls a 30-ish, limping thief named Duster, in another chapter the main character is Salsa, a monkey who is constantly suffering abuse by a rich traveling merchant named Yokuba. The only child character the player gets to control is Lucas, who is about nine to ten years old in the first three chapters and 12 to 13 years for the remainder of the game. Further controllable characters include Kumatora, a tomboyish teenage Princess, a middle-aged cowboy named Flint (Lucas' father), and Lucas' family dog, Boney.

 

 

 

True to the game's slogan "Strange, Funny and Heartrending," Mother 3 sheds the more lighthearted and quirky plot lines of the previous games in favor of a far darker and more emotional story. The plot involves many tragic and saddening events. However, the game still retains many humorous and bizarre elements that are common to the series.

 

 

 

Mother 3 is set in the Nowhere Islands. Chaos ensues after an invasion by the Pig Mask Army, named after the uniforms, which resemble pigs, and its leader the "Pig King". They slowly construct a police state, while experimenting on the land's flora and fauna, and introducing new technology and infrastructure to the islands. The various chapters record the life of a boy named Lucas and his family and friends, banding together to rid the Nowhere Islands of the Pig Mask Army.

[/hide]

 

 

 

If you want me to post any new information just ask me thank you. :thumbsup:

[Crazykid1321]

I have decided to bump up this topic, we need to spread the GOOD...GOOOD...H.....A......P......P........Y news that is Urfbownd!

[Toki_Hakurei]

Do you realize how long this topic has been up with ZERO replies? I'm surprised you finally found it.

[Caxis]

*Sigh*

 

 

 

Somehow, my old save state replaced my main save and I lost 5 hours of progress in Mother 3.

 

 

 

Now I don't want to play anymore :lol:.

[megakiller32]

Do you realize how long this topic has been up with ZERO replies? I'm surprised you finally found it.

 

 

 

Yeah, but I like SS4Alex's signature.

[Crazykid1321]

 

Yeah, but I like SS4Alex's signature.

 

Thank you very much.

 

Do you realize how long this topic has been up with ZERO replies? I'm surprised you finally found it.

 

I didn't finally find it, I just decided to revive it.

 

 

 

We must start by building MOTHER/EarthBound empire on TIF! :twss:

 

 

 

*Sigh*

 

 

 

Somehow, my old save state replaced my main save and I lost 5 hours of progress in Mother 3.

 

 

 

Now I don't want to play anymore :lol:.

 

[Toki_Hakurei]

I need to know how to make gifs lol. :lol:

[Crazykid1321]

I need to know how to make gifs lol. :lol:

 

I use Snagit + Photoshop CS3. :D

[RayOxide]

Alex back to brawl pl0x lol

 

 

 

Im interested.

 

More mothergames in aus plz.

 

Never heard of one ;)

[Crazykid1321]

Alex back to brawl pl0x lol

 

 

 

Im interested.

 

More mothergames in aus plz.

 

Never heard of one ;)

 

 

 

MOTHER/EarthBound > Brawl by miles.

 

 

 

Import or emulate.

 

 

 

Get informed http://starmen.net/index2.php!

[RayOxide]

Earthbound/Mother is like what

 

10 yrs old?

 

:roll:

 

 

 

Unless they're act00l33 making a new one I dont give a rats [wagon] about it.

 

I probably dont have a Nintendo BC 64.

[Crazykid1321]

Earthbound/Mother is like what

 

10 yrs old?

 

:roll:

 

 

 

Unless they're act00l33 making a new one I dont give a rats [wagon] about it.

 

I probably dont have a Nintendo BC 64.

 

 

 

 

 

Here you go, mister Troll, http://mother3.fobby.net/.

 

 

 

MOTHER is around 18 years old.

 

 

 

MOTHER2/Earthbound is around 14 years old.

[RayOxide]

Jesus dude dont get flared up - I'm no troll. :)

 

And 18 is worse.

 

 

 

But ever since my friend told me about this I always did wanna play it..

 

:?

 

 

 

oh btw alex

 

rawr me angry alex grrawr.

 

-.-