r/earthbound • • Aug 13 '17

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

1.2k 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 • • 12h ago

Do yall like my costume idea?

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188 Upvotes

r/earthbound • • 15h ago

General Discussion Am I the only one who should be "afraid" to do or say things related to the Mother series in my school?

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91 Upvotes

:(


r/earthbound • • 4h ago

General Discussion Si un jour on a un mother 4, pensez vous qu'il sera plus similaire au 1 et 2 ou prendra une autre direction comme le 3 ?

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8 Upvotes

r/earthbound • • 1d ago

Merch Greetings from Osaka!

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565 Upvotes

r/earthbound • • 18h ago

Beautiful view

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99 Upvotes

Author — WatanoLemonT


r/earthbound • • 13h ago

Art Today at my Library's Makers Space I took a Vinyl Sticker making course and I had prepped some fun ideas before hand in a USB stick and I'm glad I did! I got to make this!

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36 Upvotes

I was lucky enough to get to put 3 on the sheet with the other 3 people who took the course with me! It was so fun! we all made different neat stickers of course, I can't wait to go back and make more fun Earthbound Stickers and other stuff


r/earthbound • • 13h ago

EB Discussion When you think about it, equipping the Casey Bat is like trying to get a hit in baseball.

15 Upvotes

The Casey Bat only hits 25% of the time, which isn’t that different from how baseball is. Even if you’re a great hitter you’re not going to get a hit most of the times you go to the plate. But when you do, you will do a lot of damage.


r/earthbound • • 19h ago

Mother 3 Spoilers had to do college work, so i drew some M3 stuff Spoiler

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19 Upvotes

this was my first time using procreate dont jump me


r/earthbound • • 20h ago

EB Spoilers Well... I was scared asf with this one. Wanna guess why? Spoiler

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17 Upvotes

I use "Alakazam" nickname for like what? Atleast 10 years. I tought this was some dokidoki shit XD Moonside was already a scary area and with this? I am not gonna forget this memory thats for sure. (was yume nikki inspired from moonside??)


r/earthbound • • 15h ago

Mother 3 Spoilers Mother 3 review Spoiler

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3 Upvotes

r/earthbound • • 16h ago

EB Spoilers Cave of the Past+Giygas beaten damageless (no sound, no skill) Spoiler

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3 Upvotes

Send this to anyone who says the final dungeon is unfair. (Please don't actually do that)
I don't begrudge anyone who thinks this is cut, especially with no sound, poor gameplay and incredible luck. I'll maybe record another attempt with sound and less luck dependence. But this is legit.
Out of all the lucky things that happened in this video, not encountering a Ghost of Starman was not particularly lucky. Paula with Rabbit's Foot almost always goes before them and can use PSI Shield (sigma or omega).
I beat the whole game while reloading my last save every time a party member took damage. Onett sucked, needing to get level 8 off of animals to beat Frank and level 14 in Giant Step to beat Titanic Ant. But after that it was surprisingly fun, though not free from tedium. (And yes, that includes no overworld damage. Just use Teleport to skip through Deep Darkness. Easier said than done thanks to the narrow miniboss corridor, but 100% possible.)
The fact that the only remotely useful 1/128 drop for this run is the Bomb from Attack Slugs really says a lot about this game's 'ultimate weapons'


r/earthbound • • 19h ago

Can you recommend fonts for MOTHER fangame?

5 Upvotes

I'm making MOTHER/EARTHBOUND fangame and I am interested about what font would fans like.

You can just answer me Pixel font or Non-pixel font.

Uhhhh, I don't know if you want to see development, so this is my channels link.

https://youtube.com/@domangbam?si=rozFSClyCWEC0aJa

You should know that I am beginner stage of developer.

(My developing ability isn't good)

+I'm Korean and I'm writing it fast, so there can be mistake in typing.


r/earthbound • • 1d ago

Merch Cool af

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125 Upvotes

r/earthbound • • 1d ago

Art Tank Kids

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28 Upvotes

An old piece of mine from 2017 because, plane man, let them drive that tank!!! Free these children! They deserve it!


r/earthbound • • 1d ago

Is this the game that the PK fire kids come from?

61 Upvotes

r/earthbound • • 1d ago

EB Spoilers How you you think Ness and Tracy's age? Spoiler

10 Upvotes

Ness's Japanese age is 12, and American age is 13.

And Tracy's Japanese age is 10, and and American age is 11.


r/earthbound • • 1d ago

Art Artwork by (Shifumame)

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132 Upvotes

r/earthbound • • 2d ago

Art My brother got me these custom handmade EarthBound enemy figures!

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372 Upvotes

i absolutely love the Mook, it’s adorable! and the Titanic Ant looks so goofy lol. you can really tell they’re handmade, which honestly makes them even more charming. they’re made of cold porcelain!


r/earthbound • • 1d ago

Mother 3 Spoilers Finally, a Duster Ask on One of the Ask Blogs

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36 Upvotes

I don't think there's too many Mother 3 spoilers, but... Just in case!!

I didn't expect to end up with such a long answer (comparatively) but shows how much I know about a character I write for. It gave me a chance to try adjusting to my new screen protector anyway which had mixed success. Original post!

Are people interested in more dumb ask blog content? If people are, I can figure out a sensible way to post ones with canon characters in them. No matter what, I liked how this turned out and wanted to share it with more people!


r/earthbound • • 1d ago

Help/Advice Quickest way to get party members to my same level?

13 Upvotes

I’m new to this game, about to do the second sanctuary fight and just unlocked paula and think it is incredibly irritating that she starts at level 1 and killed maybe 50% of my motivation to play this game. Ness is level 24 and i really really really do not want to grind 50K exp just to get her up to par. What’s the quickest way to get her to a reasonable level?


r/earthbound • • 1d ago

Fluff Hey guys! I’m kinda working on a swap au and I wanna know if you guys would be interested?

13 Upvotes

Ive definitely seen many times when people hated on aus/headcanons so I just wanna know if you guys be interested or if I should keep that for twitter or tumblr


r/earthbound • • 2d ago

Mother 3 Spoilers I played Mother 3 for the first time when I was 13, I’m 26 and the ending makes me even more emotional now Spoiler

53 Upvotes

The ending had me in tears at 13 but when watching the world collapse in the game while phantasmagoria is playing just breaks me now. It’s not real but it feels real. It makes me think too much about humanity will be its own undoing. This isn’t even taking into consideration the final boss and just how dark and depressing the Porky fight is.


r/earthbound • • 2d ago

EB Discussion Something that really bugs me.

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89 Upvotes

r/earthbound • • 1d ago

Fluff How do you get Carbon Dog to turn into Diamond Dog?

7 Upvotes