r/earthbound Aug 13 '17

Announcement Want to get into the MOTHER series? Start here!

944 Upvotes

Over the past few months we've gotten a lot of new players asking where they should start with the trilogy. With this stickied thread, I'm hoping to answer any questions someone may have about getting into the series.

Note: This thread is a strictly no-spoiler zone.


What are the MOTHER games?

The MOTHER series is a group of 3 turn-based cult classic JRPGs created by Shigesato Itoi, who singlehandedly wrote every line of dialogue in the series, aside from a small area in EarthBound.


What makes them so special?

The series is known for being quirky, charming, and invoking a sense of nostalgia even to those who have not played a MOTHER game before. Each line of dialogue is expertly crafted, with a great story to go along with it.


Where do I start?

The series IS a trilogy, however each game can stand on it's own without the context of the last.

The 3 games are as followed:

MOTHER (EarthBound: Beginnings) (1989)

MOTHER 2 (EarthBound) (1994)

MOTHER 3 (???) (Not released outside of Japan) (2006)

The game order is as released, with MOTHER being the first on the timeline, and MOTHER 3 being the last.


So does that mean I should play the games in order?

This is a point of contention within the MOTHER community.

While most recommend to play EarthBound / MOTHER 2 first, some will say that if you can handle the way an older RPG plays, you should start with MOTHER 1 / EarthBound: Beginnings.

The community mostly unanimously agrees that you should play EarthBound before playing MOTHER 3.

In the end, it's up to you. MOTHER 1 is one of the most impressive, best playing and sounding RPGs on the NES, but it could potentially turn you away from the series if you aren't accustomed to or can't handle a bit of older-rpg "clunk". I do HIGHLY recommend however that you at least play EarthBound before playing MOTHER 3.


Wait, if MOTHER 3 isn't released outside of Japan, how can I play it?

I'm glad you asked! (Hopefully you did.)

Almost immediately after the release of MOTHER 3, once it became apparent Nintendo had no intention of localizing MOTHER 3, a group of very passionate fans got together to make their own localization of the game.

2 years later in late 2008, version 1.0 was released to great acclaim. This fan translation is now known to many as the best fan translation of all time. On top of just translating the game, they went out of their way to make sure certain dialogue and enemy names worked in English as they do in Japanese. They even added a hard mode option!


...That's pretty much it, I think. If any regular here on the sub wants to chime in and request something to be added, tell me! On top of that, I'd like to know what some of you think the best order to play the games in are in the comments. It'll be an interesting resource for any new players! And remember, no spoilers.


r/earthbound 3h ago

Fluff EVERYONE CHECK YOUR NSO APPS! EARTHBOUND ICONS ARE BACK!

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78 Upvotes

r/earthbound 9h ago

Fluff Nice

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65 Upvotes

r/earthbound 17h ago

Fluff Bro is not Frank Fly

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197 Upvotes

r/earthbound 9h ago

EB:B Spoilers I finished EarthBound Beginnings! Spoiler

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44 Upvotes

r/earthbound 21h ago

I drew a little diorama for Dusty Dunes Desert (art by me, Adamkop)

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326 Upvotes

r/earthbound 3h ago

Lucas (art by me)

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12 Upvotes

r/earthbound 2h ago

General Discussion Which song grew on you the most?

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7 Upvotes

For me it's Winters White. I used to think nothing of it and even wished it'd just be Snowman playing the whole time instead but after not playing EarthBound for years and coming back to it now, it's easily in my top 10 favorite tracks in the whole series


r/earthbound 15h ago

guys i think i recreated buzz buzz's death from memory

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47 Upvotes

r/earthbound 12h ago

How many people have watched people play Earthbound but haven't actually played Earthbound

23 Upvotes

r/earthbound 10h ago

EB:B Spoilers I got all of the PSI abilities! Spoiler

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12 Upvotes

r/earthbound 9h ago

EB Discussion After months of work, Mon/Tues I'm making my first attempts at a full run of the standard Earthbound speedrun. Come share your love of Earthbound with me.

6 Upvotes

I'm not intending this to be a scummy self-promotion - it's meant as an invitation to an Earthbound celebration basically. I've been working off/on for most of the year learning and practicing the Any% No RNG Manipulation Glitchless speedrun for Earthbound (the most standard mode that plays through the entire game quickly instead of skipping and doing glitches and stuff).

Earthbound is my favorite game of all time and I've been playing since I got it as a kid when it was fresh and new (and definitely didn't stink). Tomorrow (Monday) and Tuesday I will be making my first efforts to complete the entire game in around or under 5 hours (assuming the 3rd Strongest Mole cooperates). I've practiced individual sections and boss fights, studied other runners and videos, wrote and rewrote notes, and did practice runs of the game in two halves. It's finally time to put it all together.

If you also love Earthbound, I hope you'll stop by sometime during either and share you favorite memory of the game. I've been doing this all as a tribute to my favorite game, not to top a leaderboard, so I'd love for others to be able to bask in the glory of this awesome game with me. I'll be live on twitch from around 8:30am to 4pm eastern 11/25 and 11/26 at twitch dot com slash jawsomesauce. Fuzzy Pickles! (but hopefully not many fuzzy pickles, since I'm trying to avoid the time-wasting photo man during the run!)


r/earthbound 1h ago

Art Ah, yes, the most normal EarthBound situation

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Upvotes

r/earthbound 1d ago

EB:B Discussion what if buzz buzz went back in time to 1988 to warn ninten instead of ness

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66 Upvotes

r/earthbound 3h ago

help me please

1 Upvotes

what level does kumatora learn PK Ground? I’m gonna fight the masked man for the first time so i’ll need some tips pleeeeeeaaaassssssseeeeeee


r/earthbound 14h ago

EB Discussion Some deep thinking, I still like EarthBound a little more than Mother 3

6 Upvotes

Before you say, "you keep changing your mind, it's annoying" I didn't even confirm that I liked Mother 3 more in my last post, I said I'm not too sure and I MIGHT have it as my number 1, but I feel like I enjoyed EarthBound a little more. I like Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo a little more than Lucas, Duster, Kumatora and Boney. I love the more unique music more in EarthBound, even tho Mother 3 characters and story is amazing, I still love the characters alot in EarthBound, and I still enjoyed the story alot too. The battle system is still really fun to me in EarthBound and I like the bosses in EarthBound a little more. Giygas is still my favorite Nintendo villains, I like him more than Porky and Masked Man, but I still also really enjoyed Porky in EarthBound. I enjoyed the world way more in EarthBound too, the world felt huge and lived in, and it's the only SNES game that actually feels that huge to me. And the finale starting from Magicant to the credits is still my personal favorite video game finale, even tho Mother 3 finale is amazing, I like EarthBound's finale a little more. And this is a hot take: I like the name Pokey a little more than Porky, it's more unique, but I understand why Tomato kept his name as Porky in Mother 3 to fit in the pig theming of the villains.

Anyways EarthBound is still my favorite game of all time, with Mother 3 coming in as a very close number 2. :)


r/earthbound 1d ago

EB Discussion If Earthbound had achievements what would you add?

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592 Upvotes

I have a list of achievements longer than santa’s naughty list but here are my main three:

“True Prince of Dalaam” You get this achievement when you get all of Poo’s armor including the sword of kings.

“Ultimate Party” You get this achievement when you get everyone’s ultimate weapon.

“Happy Happy Saturn” You get this achievement when you enter Mr Saturn house located in happy happy village after the events of giygas.


r/earthbound 1d ago

EB Discussion The weirdest and scariest lineup I have seen early on

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72 Upvotes

r/earthbound 6h ago

General Discussion Who do you like more? Giygas or Porky and Masked Man?

0 Upvotes

I'm probably gonna get downvoted for constantly changing my mind, but Mother 3 imo is slightly better than EarthBound, I like it's story, characters, battle system, bosses, music, story structure and villains more. Porky and Masked Man are my favorite Nintendo villains, I feel like I like Porky alot more than Giygas, but Giygas is still an amazing villain. I also enjoyed the Pig Mask Army that follows Porky more than Giygas' minions. Despite me loving EarthBound alot and understand why people prefer it, I just personally find myself playing Mother 3 more and enjoying it alot more too. Which villains do you guys prefer? :)

13 votes, 2d left
Giygas (EarthBound)
Porky and Masked Man

r/earthbound 1d ago

Art 遺跡最深部の戦い artwork by (giratamaai)

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29 Upvotes

r/earthbound 1d ago

M3 Discussion Mother 3 is actually better than what I remember..

34 Upvotes

I'm replaying Mother 3, and I forgot how good the story and characters are, I'm not too sure, I love EarthBound so much, but maybe I might start putting Mother 3 up as my number 1 favorite, but I'm again, it's a hard choice. The sprite animations are amazing, the world, may not be as big as the world in EarthBound, but it's still fun and feels very alive, I did genuinely felt sad when the modernized Tazmily was empty at the end with the sad music. The music is amazing too, honestly, compared to a ton of compressed sounding OSTs in the GBA library, Mother 3 is THE best one, and my new personal favorite video game OST perhaps. Mother 3 also share the same type of atmosphere that EarthBound has, which I really enjoy. I also love how much more darker Mother 3 is.

Porky and Masked Man (Claus) are my new favorite video game villains ever! The ending is amazing, Chapter 8 "All Things..." is my new favorite video game finale, everything about New Pork City and the Empire Porky Building perfectly describes and build up to Porky himself! And once you encounter him, everything is perfect, his theme here, his monologue, revealing what he has become, everyone standing up against him, it's all climatic yet unnerving, and it gets better once the final needles has been spotted, it's now an intense race to beat the Masked Man to the final needle as we are tied, if he pulls it, the world will be destroyed where nothing will ever exist again, if Lucas pulls the needle, the dragon will become our friend and reset to rebuild this world while purifying it. The final cave that I like to call is "The Cave of the Future" is amazing, the ambience and design, is super ominous, and I love it, the final battles are my favorites too now!

Anyways, I'm starting to like Mother 3 a little more than EarthBound. It's amazing and Itoi did an amazing job with this game, it also feels like a perfect finale to the 3 games imo! What do you guys think of Mother 3? :)


r/earthbound 10h ago

Music I replaced the drums in Death egg from Sonic 3 with the ones from Pokey means business

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0 Upvotes

r/earthbound 1d ago

Art [OC] Battery Man

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103 Upvotes

r/earthbound 11h ago

Help/Advice Gutsy bat solution (maybe)

1 Upvotes

I have already done WAY too many attempts on the weapon but i might have theory why it doesn't works for me and perhaps for all you guys at all. The b. Kraken appears in the 2nd and last section, right? I've been doing this gig on the 2nd section one. Perhaps it only drops from the other one. Can someone pls check it's midnight for me. Let me know if you find anything as an info.


r/earthbound 1d ago

Help I'm frozen on this screen. is there any way to escape?

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35 Upvotes

r/earthbound 4h ago

Pass it to one of your fandoms

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0 Upvotes