Right, I've just finished Earthbound and want to play MOTHER 1.
How do I go about playing it? Playing the NES rom of Earthbound Zero? the translated NES rom of MOTHER or the GBA version of MOTHER 1+2 translated?
I haven't gotten around to playing it myself, but I've heard the Mother 1+2 version fixed a lot of problems with the NES version.
>>254354948
>How do I go about playing it?
You don't.
I personally recommend you play the GBA version instead. If you can't handle your shit in tons of random-battles, there's the easy ring.
Have fun.
try with the easy ring on the translated GBA version
Its a fun game but it might be get tedious at points, but its worth pushing through if you can
>>254355356
>that comic
Anyone know if the OP playing earthbound on his Wii U and screenshotting as he played came back?
he seemed like a cool guy.
>>254355545
He came back as he was grinding but the thread died so I guess he left again.
>>254354948
Just play the NES version
Gameplay is a bitch but I loved the atmosphere and the story.
>>254355757
Awww damn that was a really nice thread as well
gonna bump with some screens while i play untill OP comes back or replies i guess
>>254355951
The Mother 1+2 version is better outside of the music though, and the fan translation does make the story flow more smoothly.
>>254356232
I'm fairly sure the GBA version is identical in everything except translation to the NES version as well
>>254356232
Music is fucking important, and the GBA version looks worse to me for some reason.
Why is it better? Is it easier?
>>254356340
The translation is a fan translation, which i think is alot better overall. The NES version is a translation that was made by Nintendo of America, but the game was never released in USA because they opted to localize and release Earthbound instead. The music issue is only present in Mother 2, because that was ported from Snes so alot of shit had to be chopped and changed to work an fit onto the cartridge, resulting in the EB port being weird as fuck
>>254356340
It just has the easy ring, is all. I think it also has the ending credits where it tells what happens after everything.
>>254356593
NES version has that as well.
>>254356552
I found the translation fine on the NES game, the story is quite simple anyways.
So OP just play whatever, you will probably stop due to the bullshit random encounters, its not as bad as DQ2 but still.
>>254356340
The GBA version has a better translation iirc
Also has the easy ring, and Mother 1 is notorious for stupid encounter rates.
>>254356298
It has a better movement system (no longer tile-based I believe), the check button (which makes segments a lot less tedious plus you can tell if you're in a battle zone), and some minor details.
>>254356340
The music isn't that much worse. Mother 2's is a lot worse since the SNES to GBA is a lot worse than NES to GBA.
The difficulty is the same outside of the optional easy ring and EVE's melody, which is a free teleport to whereEVE died. Though it doesn't change things a whole lot, it can cut down on needless enemy encounters at the end.
>>254356854
yeah i don't think the translation improves that much, it just adds in the stuff that was censored or changed for the NOA version
>>254356854
>bullshit random encounters
Were these really a problem later game, though?
Early it's annoying, but once I was able to handle myself in a battle I remember them not being as annoying.
If you do play the NES I say use save states before leveling. I swear the RNG for stat growth doesn't make any fucking sense. You might find yourself with less health than the mage girl which shouldn't happen. There's also a lot of grinding which that can remedy that. I know people will bash me but Mother 1 is just annoying because of that.
>Series has 3 games labelled game, game 2 and game 3
>Its a JRPG trilogy where the story matters and its connected through the games
>I know Ill start playing from game 2!
Why.
>>254357139
Mt Itoi is bullshit, I just ran away from every encounter.
>>254357459
You don't really need to know about the events of 1 to get the story of 2. It helps yes but isn't really needed. 3 however force you to know some of the characters from the other games.
Should have played Mother 1 first,you will have a hard time playing it after Earthbound.
>>254357459
Because, for the most part, all the games are independent, barring one aspect that you don't actually need to have played the last game to understand.
NES version has a charm to it that is hard to reproduce
I felt like I was walking an empty idealogical space between old PC games and modern console stuff like dragon warrior
Because there are mazy sections it feels more lonely and empty
it's hard to describe and it's an important part of the Mother experience
>>254357659
>>254357750
I argue that the experience is better and more powerful if you play them in order.
Of course it was okay in 1995 when earthbpound came out, but its 2014 dude.
>>254357659Actually, the Devil's Machine is the Apple of Enlightenment. Ness' face appearing in it is the prediction it made. You, when you approach it, are viewing the prediction the Apple of Enlightenment made.
Except for the fact that Giygas is running from Ninten. That's not Ness' face in the Devil's Machine, Porky saw it and mistook it for Ness since they look so similar. Giygas went insane after Ninten sang him to near death and made him flee the Earth, so he's been hiding in a place that existed before time.
Since it exists outside of four dimensional space, you can consider every event that takes place there simultaneous.
>>254354948
Translated GBA version provides less of a headache due to a streamlined "use" button. I highly suggest going that way.
>>254357459
I would argue the story isn't so connected that it is vital to understanding the plot of the game. Most plot from Mother 1 that exists in Mother 2 is speculation like if Ninten is Ness' Father and Anna his Mother.
>>254357902
Wait what gygas never ran from ninten, he ran from Ness.
The profecy is about Ness so yes thats his face, ninten had already been defeated in the interim.
>>254358120
Thats not speculation thats bullshit.
>>254358120
There's still loads of references towards the first Mother, plus there's Giygas' backstory and whatnot.
It was okay back when EB released, but considering it's very easy nowadays, one should definitely play the series sequentially.
>>254357902
But that really isn't completely needed. Yeah it's true but it's not something that you need to know to understand the game. I was just saying that Mother 1 only has small story here and there that effects 2 and 3. It's good to know them but it's a requirement. However a lot of the major scenes and characters plays an important role in 3. So you should play 2 to completely understand 3.
>>254358297
i dunno
theres aload of shit supporting the idea his mother might be ana, and he looks identical to Ninten at the same age. Obviously it is mostly bullshit that people like to throw around but there is aload of open ended shit in Mother 2 that has no real explanation.
In M2 Buzzbuzz is nintenIn M3 Anonymous travelling vendor is Ness
>>254357882
>I argue that the experience is better and more powerful if you play them in order.
It definitely is, but there's also something about playing Mother after Mother 2, since you can almost see it like a prequel for the origin of the PSI and Giygas, like a prequel.
Also, Earthbound is much more visually appealing to a wider crowd, being 16-bit, and was only released so long ago on VC, and was "free" for Platinum users, which would give extra incentive to try it out first.
I want a MOTHER anime
Or a TV series
Or something, anything.
>>254358794
Oh except for a sequel, fuck that.
Specially if its fan made.
>>254358794
A movie would be great, or even just a small special, but it's way too late now.
Course, 25th anniversary is in a week, so I guess you can put in blind hope for that.
Mother makes me sad as fuck cause it reminds me of when i was a little kid and i used to think one day i would go on a big adventure with my friends like Ness did and it never happened.
>>254358449
Yeah, I know, is just that I find 2's ending more interesting and complex if you've played 1.
>>254358537
I wish they just fucking release Mother 1 on VC. Yes I know "lol paying for roms" I still think they should. It cost them nothing and a lot of people that got Earthbound might want to try out pay for the first.
>>254357902
nigga that's mad autistic.the devil's machine is the absolutely safe capsule.
The series theme is about maternal bonds
The evil alien gone crazy due to human bonds it cant understand
The evil kid that turned that way because of bad parenting
And you father is never home, I wonder if Itoi thinks fathers suck at being parents
Fuzzy Pickles!
>>254358990
Oh it is. And knowing all the characters backstory would make understand things a bit better. But It's fairly easy to play Earthbound without needed to know Mother 1. Now a days it's best to play the rom and enjoy it as a 8 bit game. It's not really that great in my opinion. A lot of grinding and the stat growth is all over the place so you are best to just save state before leveling to get the best level up you can get. But if you really want to experience everything fully you should play all of them in order.
>>254359168
i believe its because itoi was never at home and had a divorce and shit. he most likely though he was a crappy father
>>254358990
There's always playing Mother 2, playing Mother 1, replaying Mother 2, and then playing Mother 3.
Im glad Mother threads are free from the abortion theorists retards now.
>>254358949
>it reminds me of when i was a little kid and i used to think one day i would go on a big adventure with my friends
Congratulation!
You just realize on what Mother video games are based!
>>254359542
yeah that sounded fucking retarded in reflection
>>254359406
But why do that when you can just play them in order?
>>254359665
Graphic fags
>>254359665
Because Earthbound is more appealing, from a visual and game play standpoint. Random encounters are replaced with enemies on the screen; 8bit can turn people off, and it's the only official version out there, so there's an easy access to it than patching and emulating a translation.
>>254360353
Wasn't there a color patch for MOTHER 1?
>>254360609
It still would only help so much. Also there's a lot of other things that keep it from being great. Grinding plays a major problem with the game.
Apparently a fan remake is "coming along nicely," so that's neat.
>>254360353
>more appealing, from a visual and game play standpoint
And Mother 3 is more so than Mother 2. Except you shouldn't start with Mother 3 because there's 2 games before it, just like you shouldn't start with Mother 2 because there's a game before it.
It's not anywhere close to being hard to run Mother1+2, but even if one couldn't do that, Earthbound Zero is a strong independent ROM that doesn't need no patcher, and it's still okay (but not as good as the GBA version).
Now what's left is just being too casual to play through a relatively easy random encounter RPG, which even if one is a kid, it shouldn't be hard to play through, and the shit taste required to not being able to enjoy a standard NES JRPG solely for its technical limitations.
I can undrstand some people having trouble with the random encounters (although, really, that's just the standard for many RPGs from back in the day, even during PS1 times many RPGs used random encounters (and worse, because you had to wait for loading times AND the attack animations taking forever), so I don't really get when people complain that much about random encounters on older RPGs like Mother, but OK, I'll give you that.
But the graphics? niggas are already finding NES graphics to be bad? They're charming as fuck
>>254360910
I feel Mother 1 has a lot of issues. I mean I love Dragon Quest 3 and 4 (4 being one of my favorite game of all time) so I can totally handle the 8 bit look and gameplay. But I feel the balance is all over the place. Stat growth is so random but never feels like it evens out in the end. Half your party can't use magic and honestly are not that strong. And a few other things that just stop it from being a fun 8-bit JRPG like Dragon Quest 3 and 4. I mean it's completely playable and enjoyable at parts. But I can totally see people not wanting to play it in the end.
>>254361772
I don't think many people that skip Mother and go straight to Earthbound really delve that deep and worry about balance, stat growth, and traits of party members. Mostly I just see people glossing over the game for random encounters/encounter rate and graphics.
Also, I recall Teddy being really strong despite the lack of PK. But Loid was really weak in comparison to Jeff.
>>254360910
I think anyone who would try Mother 3 would know not to play it first explicitly because of the "3".
Earthbound, however, wasn't marketed as the sequel of anything, and even in-game the sequel would have been called "Earthbound 2".
Also, as said before, the stories are all standalone, so there is no "should"s and "shouldn't"s, any order is applicable, even going from 3 to 2 to 1.
And it's not really about how hard it is, more than it's more work than anyone would really want to do unless they were already a fan of the series. There are also people who don't like emulating so they'll ignore anything that's not out officially, or they might have other things to do so they need more motive to even play any game of the series, like it being on the Virtual Console.
>Now what's left is just being too casual
Except that's what this is mostly about, that's what most people are, casual. You can blame them for not being able to handle it, or not wanting to spend the time, but that's still what they'll do. Today, Earthbound would appeal more to a casual than a game like Mother or even Mother 3.
the only good reason for playing mother2 before than 1 is because mother 1's map is horribly designed and the battles are highly difficult. It's not a good as a starting game, but is amazinganyways
>>254362202
Well the need to grind is because of the fucked up stat growth. If it was more even and the game went with a nice progression based on that growth you wouldn't need to grind as much. Look at Dragon Quest 3 and 4. You hardly ever need to grind because you were always exploring and finding new things. Mother 1 however is a bit more linear (not completely but enough) so you never had that exploring feeling to counter balance the grinding. Also yeah sorry Teddy was nice strength wise but Loid was just someone you hoped get hit first so your other characters can live long enough to kill the enemy.
>>254361772
>and honestly are not that strong.
Say what?
>>254362367
>Earthbound, however, wasn't marketed as the sequel of anything, and even in-game the sequel would have been called "Earthbound 2".
Which makes it fine to have played it first back when it released, because most people wouldn't know better and would not have access to a copy of Mother 1 in English.
>Also, as said before, the stories are all standalone, so there is no "should"s and "shouldn't"s, any order is applicable, even going from 3 to 2 to 1.
Except they're not completely standalone. Giygas has origins in Mother 1, and Porky has origins in Mother 2. Playing out of order is bad because of all of the references to the past games in Mother 2/3 (hall of memories, remixes, most things in EB, etc) as well as a small connection in story, mainly surrounding the antagonist from the previous game.
I'm not sure why one would not emulate if they must to finish a series, but I suppose a too strict set of morals would cause some issues.
I don't think that Mother 1 really takes much more time than EB, but I can see it if they aren't really serious and just want to play a popular game.
>>254362842
Hmm, wait, I never needed to grind on Mother 1, leveling up new party members is fast, especially if you go to Magicant, you won't have the Teleport ability yet so you'll have to get out of there by walking, new party member will be strong enough once you reach the point you were in after you get out of Magicant. Other than that, no grinding needed. As the other anon said, Teddy is very strong, level 17 or 18 and he can rape almost everything on mt. itoi or the cave before it.
on Dragon Quest III i found myself grinding many times, and also it takes way more exp points on DQ3 to level up than on M1.
Also, the map in M1 is often regarded as too big, not linear. You can do several things in different order (for example, you can get the musical note from the bird cemetery before going to Mother's Day, or get it last in the game, same with other notes, they can be done in different order).
>>254354948
I really wanna say wait for the Earthbound romhack that converts it into M1 with better graphics/gameplay
:V
But goddamn that shit is never coming out
>>254362947
The two non magic users are not that great. Loid is the worst in fact. He is hardly stronger than Ana who can use PSI. He really just there to take a blow and that's it. He's just fucking teddy bear of Earthbound.
>>254363418
I felt like I had to grand all the time. It was just really annoying to me. I never felt I needed to grind outside the very start. And even than just 2 levels and you never have to grind again.
>>254363287
Mother 2 and Mother 3 give the player enough information that if they didn't play the game before it, they still know enough of the story that they can enjoy the game for what it is.
In Mother 2 there's almost no real mention of what happened in Mother 1 that actually influences the story in a major way, and in Mother 3, most of what happened in Mother 2 is explained by Dr. Andonuts and other NPCs.
There are callbacks and things that tie the series together, but ultimately they can stand on their own.
The thing about playing the games in release order is that you get a more complete, fruitful experience overall. There's no objection that the best way to enjoy the trilogy is by playing them in order.
However, yeah, the games can be enjoyed as stand alone games too, it's just not as good.
>>254364432
They can stand on their own, but it's pointless. It's much, much better to play them in order.
>>254364730
>>254364710
There's no objection that it's the best way to play, it's just not the only applicable one.
>>254357271
>You might find yourself with less health than the mage girl which shouldn't happen
Isn't Ninten actually weaker than Ana?
>>254359423
>theorists
it's a fact
>>254359423
Been that way for years, now.
>>254364730
I think I would've given up on the series if I had started with Mother 1. There were spots where it felt like I couldn't take two steps without triggering a random encounter. The game left me feeling seriously exhausted. The main reason why I was able to keep going and reach its end was because I had played the latter two games first; I was emotionally invested in the franchise because of that, and determined to see how the original game would end too.
>>254359423
Now we have to deal with Mother 4 fags.Which I don't actually mind when people talk about the game and don't just fling shit over the title.
I just finished Mother 1 today, it was fantastic.
>>254363621
>Hating on Loid
He isn't the strongest but its fun using his items a good and hes a good character, acknowledges his flaws but does his best to help.
>>254365951
Ninten doesn't learn any offensive PSI, so you could definitely say he is weaker than Ana.
I feel every character in Mother 1 was crafted to be a little individual, they weren't all made to just be straight up strong powerful characters, Loid was pretty much just a smart kid, Teddy is an adult and deals way more damage as a result. Itoi is an ideas man and for his first game I could see him making such decisions with the characters, Earthbound is definitely more balanced in the usefulness of each character, it (and plenty of other design choices in the game) shows maturity in games development as he was probably advised more while crafting it.
>>254367635
I too wonder if I would of finished the game without already having Earthbound and Mother 3 under my belt.
Here's a nice wallpaper for all my mother/earthbound bros.
I'm playing Earthbound for the first time, what's the recommended level for the final dungeon?
>>254368182
And here's another to bump the thread, sorry about all my typos.
>>254368597
At least 60-70 to survive, 70-80 for a good fight.
>>254368154
It's made some decent progress over the years, I'll say at least that.
I'll definitely try it out when it comes out, I really want to try out more of those Earthbound hacks, as well.
>>254369538
>>254358916
>not wanting a fan sequel
That Mother 4 game looks great though
>>254369538
I'm really excited for Eagleland and the Mother remake hack. I just love seeing new shit when the hp meters scroll down, hacks are great like that.
>>254357571
>not instant killing everything with PK Beam ? and then getting your PP back with PSI Magnet
Mt Itoi was really easy and gave tons of exp.
I played Mother 2 and then 3. haven't played 1 and really have no desire to. No one ever talks highly enough of it for me to want to endure the downgrades from EB or M3. Like Mass Effect, the sequel was clearly better.
>>254370913
He was baiting you
How was MOTHER 4 anyway?
>>254373794
>Using the old art for b8
pls
>>254369538
>Monotoli
>>254369538
>normal Giygas with Porky
Everytime
>>254374634
The best part is Ninten is wearing a Franklin Badge while playing with Claus.
>>254374837
Am I the only one that has a legitimate, seething hatred for Morphine Giygas?
>>254375357
Don't hate it, but I think it is ridiculous.
>>254375357
No.
I'm not a fan of tatsumairi, either.
>>254375494
Porky doesn't have a body like that
requesting ness getting gangbanged by zombies
>>254375494
>that sweating Starman
>>254375606
B-but he makes funny comics.
>Alec tells you to meet him at his house after the mother's funeral
>leave cemetary, climb the mountain, reach Alec's house
>he's already there
Fucking how
Is there a good way to grind in mother 3? I'm at the underwater part but I think I'm underleveled
>>254379097
I say just luck through it.
>>254375758
I second this
Magnicant in Earthbound makes me unreasonably sad.
It's my favourite level in any MOTHER game.
>>254379798
It's all the memories Ness forgot but his heart still remembers.
Then he has to destroy his own memories to gain power.
>>254378730
>Wess was King Osohe's henchman and Aldo knew Kumatora
>few Years later Kumatora is all grown up and he has a son
What happened to King Osohe?
What happened to Salsa?
>>254379932
I wish I hadn't just read that.
I feel awful now.
>>254380426
who knows? who cares? that was just a waste of a chapter
>>254380531
But by destroying his memories, Ness becomes one with his memories because he accepts that he forgot them
This is why the 'Your Sanctuary' places are important, because they show flashes of Ness' childhood
Then Ness gets ripped and earns a free ticket to Smash,
>>254380778
>Ness gets ripped
It is his DESTINY
>>254354948
The later.
It's a much boring game, though
