u/ArcaneAnimations

the only way i can quantify my intense love for these 4 is by drawing them a lot

so like yeah

I finished mother 3, meaning I finished the whole series. Mother 3 review: IT WAS AWESOME, oh my god did I love that game. I thought after mother 1 I was not feeling it anymore, especially with hearing that it was a bit grindier than earthbound, but that game genuinely won me over so much. (p.s., i didn't really even have to grind, at most i grinded for PK ground in the last area but I only used that move like once in the entire game ever against porky). I'll just say i did have a lot of knowledge going in, about the masked man and porky and all that, but I still got my mind blown by the white ship twist and Fassad stuff. Also, the spritework has just been incredible the whole game. I especially loved the inventory update and the sprites for every item, as well as the lore. I can kind of see why they wouldn't release it in the west, however if they DID, I'd recommend it to all my friends because of how awesome it was. I think if I were to rate the series, it would go in release order, 1 < 2 < 3, not that 2 was bad, but I think mother 3 just improves on the gameplay experience on a whole, as well as delivering a lot more thorough story. There were also not many points where I was confused on where to go, which is something I occasionally had a problem with in earthbound, and most of the time had a problem with for mother 1.

One thing that I'll say mother 3 and mother 1 did better than EarthBound is its battle strategy. I feel like with earthbound you don't really have to think out your combat a lot other than healing or which PSI to use and when, but in Mother 1, if you don't you can just killed instantly by pk beam or something, and in Mother 3 it feels more satisfying to use things like thief tools (Hypno pendulum especially) to combo or trap enemies, using Offense/Defense Up to raise weaker party member's power, or even raising offense or defense to a challenger or using shields and counters. In EarthBound, while strategy is key at many times, like Diamond Dog and the final Giygas fight, i often just resorted to using attacks or using Jeff's bottle rockets, which gave the upper hand most of the time.

That aside, I love the characters of all these games. Even if i didn't like the gameplay of a certain moment, I could always get behind how funny each of the characters could be. Especially in mother 3, since you spend so much time in Tazmily, you can really feel the presence of each character in relation to each other, and you can even learn their names and personality a lot more. it feels like a villiage, to say the least. Here are my favorites for each game:

For Mother 1, it has to be Lloyd and Teddy. I just love how lloyd sort of has a silent arc similar to what Ness and Lucas go through of being a weakling and learning to stand up for themselves. Teddy as well was just carrying my team for a long while. Extra shoutouts to Giygas and EVE, I just love their stories and honestly I'm anticipating how Mother Encore adapts them for the final act. For Mother 2, it's probably Apple Kid and Tony, I just love Apple Kid's design, not even to mention how helpful he is. Tony was such important rep that honestly you don't have to read too far between the lines to see, which is something I really appreciate Itoi going out of his way to do. extra shoutouts to Ness' Dad, The Flying Men, The Slot Brothers, Paula, Jeff and Poo. For Mother 3, as I've said before, I have a lot. I love basically everyone in the cast, but if I had to choose two, It'd be Flint and Duster, since Flint is just awesome and Duster LOVES cheese. extra shoutouts to the Magypsies (Ionia especially), Kumatora, that one Charging Robot, Rope Snake, Nippolyte, that one pigmask in thunder tower who questions his loyalty to the empire (yes him), Salsa, Boney, and Matt (the hiccups joke was really funny). also, i'd just love to shoutout some enemy designs i liked a lot, basically every Starman, especially the Ghost of Starman, Wally, Barbot, Dr. Distorto, NOOSE MAN, practically all the Sanctuary Guardians, Big Foot (especially his clay model, Negative man, Titany, Woodoh, Metallic Mystery monkey, Frightbot, and some more i'm probably forgetting.

As a last note, the music was just incredible in all the games. I love especially in Mother 1 how instead of just sounding like video gamey loops they try to make it sound like an actual song just fitting on the hardware. I love EarthBound's use of samples and the weird sounds like that ominous whistle, and Mother 3's use of leitmotifs and odd time signatures. My favorite was definitely the 8 melodies in both Mother 1 and 2, since they were honestly the thing that got me into the series the most (i actually really like the sound stone version (especially the version from mother 1 + 2 it's ominous in a really cool way) and i notice it gets cut from uploads of the OST a lot (why)). Extra shoutouts go to Bein' Friends, Pollyanna, Wisdom of the World, Onett theme, Otherworldly Foe, Your Name Please, Winters White, Bazaar, F-F-fire!, Dry Guys, Back Beat Battle, Strong One (Barrier Trio), Volcano! Inferno!, and a lot more, all of which are now in my playlist.

ALL of this being said, this series was awesome. I can see why so many people love it because honestly now I love it too. I'll definitely be doing more art of the series when my artblock ends, I pushed through it for this post because i loved mother 3 a lot. Peace!

OK so i just beat mother 1 recently. I haven't done as much surrounding it as m2, because (to be frank) i do have a lot of general thoughts. i will say even though i reeally wanted to enjoy it, i kind of couldn't in places, especially with the combat. maybe i'm just bad at the game and i didn't know what to do half the time, but i ended up dying like a quarter of the battles i started, even having strategies at time being widely unhelpful. i also had to do a lot of backtracking, since so few of the towns i visited even had hospitals or means of recovering HP and PP. I also found myself really not as interested in talking to townsfolk when they could be zombies that kill you or give you a cold by talking to them. Especially the first instance it happens is in Podunk, the first town of the whole game. ALSO PK BEAM HOLY HELL IS THAT MOVE BROKEN I REMEMBER I WAS TRYING TO STRENGTHEN LOID AND HE JUST GETS ONE SHOT BY IT (but you better believe i abused the hell out of it for mt. itoi)

Also, I think I ended up missing a lot of things generally, or just got the game wrong in how i played. I never got in the tank you could use, so I never fought that robot or ended up in the monkey caves, which i am just now learning were a thing. Also, I fought the Dragon with teddy and it was really easy apparently I was supposed to do that with Loid. woooooops.

On the positives though, I do actually really appreciate the story the game tried to tell, when i could figure out where to go, that is. I actually really like the personality of Loid, Ana and Teddy, and even though we don't get as much of Ninten's personality, i feel like it's def something he has. I actually got a bunch of little comic ideas with them, which i haven't fully finished cause of my lack of time, but i do really like Teddy, Ana and Loid. The scene with Mary near the end especially got me in the feels a bit, and I don't know why, but i just am really endeared by how the fight is solved with a song, rather than a larger scale battle. also, i like how weird the enemies look. the bear in this game has a human face and despite it consistently kicking my butt it's very funny.

Now all this being said, i really do kind of agree with the general sentiment. good ideas, mayyyybe a little dated execution. for what it's worth, i did enjoy the first and last stretches of the game, even ignoring the horrors of PK beam, the middle did meander a bit but yk. Maybe one day i'll replay it with the knowledge i have now and i'll enjoy iy more, but i'll give it like a 6/10. sorry mother 1 enthusiasts.

Anyway, now i'm playing mother 3. very very different, but i do prefer the more individual system in place for earthbound's combat to the original mother's, so i can't be complaining much. genuinely great spritework and cinematography, i'm excited to continue playing as i'm only in chapter 1 so far (as hopefully evidenced by slide 6) in conclusion, mother 1 was alright, mother 2 was great, and mother 3 looks promising. I LOVE MY MOM!

i finished EarthBound! ngl, one of my favorite games now.

i've also started playing beginnings and i think it might be a rage game i just lost my whole team to a sentient suit of armor

second EB comic! i just beat the plague rat of doom, but i did have this silly situation with Paula a bit ago. i'm having a real fun time with this game!

also, apple kid and bubble monkey are my goats i love those guys

currently on my first playthrough of earthbound! i got in a weird situation with jeff and paula in threed, and i decided to immortalize it in a comic. i'm looking to fight this belch character soon. which i will surely do. because i am awesome.

also, i am MORTIFIED of the territorial oak

animated show/semi alternate reality project i'm working on.

yeaahhh if you want to see what the project will look like here's the anim test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4QCi0HnyPA