Mother -The Original Story- is a novel written by Saori Kumi, and based on the first game in the Mother series.
In the far northern village of Snowman, a girl with mysterious powers named Ana has been receiving strange visions: fighting zombies, zoo animals, and strange machines; meeting new people; and visiting strange locations. She soon realizes that these visions are being broadcasted to her by a boy with similar powers to her named Ken, who, alongside a weak nerdy boy named Lloyd, is on a mission to find eight melodies in order to repel an alien invasion and save the world.
Mother -The Original Story- contains examples of:
- Adaptation Distillation: As the book is told from the perspective of Ana, everything that happens before she joins the party is briefly shown through her visions, and later summarized by Ken.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: The novel switches Ana and Ninten's hair colors. It turns out that there was a reason for that later on.
- Adaptational Hairstyle Change: Ana was shown in the games with short pigtails. Here, she has it tied in long braids, one of which getting cut off by the claws of a wolf while the remaining one gets loose.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Good grief is Ninten's novel counterpart a brat! Unlike Ninten, who gets little characterization due to essentially being a mask worn by the player, his counterpart "Ken" is an overall rude, abrasive, and haughty little boy to the point where both of his companions, Ana especially, cannot stand him. His one redeeming quality is that he genuinely loves his mother and sisters and wants to stop Giygas for their sake.
- Adaptation Name Change: The boy who leads the main party is named Ken, not Ninten.
- Demoted to Extra: A surprising example in the novelization, where Ninten's counterpart, Ken, is no longer the main protagonist. While he still plays an important role in the story, the role of hero goes to Ana instead.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ken, as Lloyd points out.Lloyd: That guy, he says some pretty nasty things, but he's not bad at heart.
- Lighter and Softer: Downplayed. While the party still deal with animals under Giegue's hypnosis by beating them back to their senses, they stop a group of hypnotized people by using a "Strong Mocha Spray" to wake them up.
- Missing Mom: Ana's mother has been stated to have gone missing a month ago.
- Perspective Flip: The book is written from Ana's point of view.
