MOTHER is an Eastern RPG trilogy by Nintendo, the brainchild of Japanese writer and media personality Shigesato Itoi as a personal experiment in the ability of the video game medium to tell a story. Yep, it's an auteur-directed game series, and one of the first of it's kind, too. It was named for the John Lennon song "Mother", of whom Itoi is a large fan, and is subject to quite a lot of Title Drops.The games are known for their strange sense of humor, simple yet subtly detailed cartoonish style, deconstructive approach to its genre and medium, bizarre near-parodical interpretation of America from the perspective of a foreigner exposed to it only through American TV and cinema, and for their sad and even terrifying moments. The series as a whole is a chronic victim of No Export for You, and while it is rather famous now, that may be more related to, or at least instigated by, its continued presence in the Super Smash Bros series.Completely unrelated to the comedy starring Albert Brooks and Debbie Reynolds.
The series consists of the following titles:
MOTHER (1989, Famicom): The series' debut, telling the story of Ninten as he works to uncover his family's connections to an impending alien invasion. Wasn't released outside Japan, but a prototypical English version, widely called "EarthBound Zero", was discovered in the late 1990s.
EarthBoundnote aka MOTHER 2: Gyiyg Strikes Back (1994/1995, Super Nintendo Entertainment System): The series' only official international release and thus the one everyone knows. The star is Ness, one of the four chosen heroes to combat Giygas and his impending destruction of the universe.
All three games feature an exploding robot enemy that can fully heal itself or its allies. In two variants. With one type appearing in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon.
Affectionate Parody: Of Dragon Quest, which is natural seeing as that is the game that inspired Itoi to dabble in game-writing. However, EarthBound's battle system drifts away from the DQ clone that is the original.
Book Ends: In the first MOTHER, a denizen of Magicant suggests you can never be happy unless they leave the house — but then, you leave yourself open to unhappiness, also. He concludes the best option is to do nothing. This becomes Porky's Ironic Hell in MOTHER 3.
Defeat Means Friendship: So, so many bosses. Teddy, Frank, Everdred, Carpainter, Monotoli, etc. Justified with a couple of them in that they were Brainwashed and Crazy, and defeat snapped them out of it.
Everything's Better with Monkeys: A singing monkey gives you a part of a MacGuffin in MOTHER. Later you get to go in a cave full of monkeys. A majority of them lie to you.
Everything's Deader with Zombies: Zombie mooks pop up time to time. In MOTHER, you see them the early graveyard section of the game and Rosemary Manor. EarthBound's Threed has been completely overwhelmed by zombies, trapping them in a perpetual George Romero movie.
Genre Deconstruction: MOTHER is Itoi's meditation on what games are, why they are fun, and the logistics of applying JRPG logic to the real world. For example: Who designs dungeons? And why do people instinctively know to loot them? (Admittedly, the series' mythos got a little deeper with each game.)
Gotta Catch 'Em All: The Eight Melodies in MOTHER and EarthBound. In MOTHER 3, Lucas is in a race to stop all Seven Needles from being uprooted (or, when failure there becomes inevitable, make sure that he's the one that pulls them).
Hello, Insert Name Here: A prominent example, as this feature is used to name the game's most powerful attack and the food your mother gives you to eat every time you see her.
Not to mention the name of your dog, the friends that you will make along the path of your journey, and the um... "flavor" of the text boxes.
And you are able to give your own name as well as that of the main group. This can easily put the insanity of Giygas into perspective should you name yourself or Ness after him.
Mayor Pain: Podunk's A. Goodman is a Wilkins. Fourside's Gelegarde Monotoli is a malevolent Quimby. Or so it seems at first.
Onett's B.H Pirkle and Tazmily's Pusher are both Quimbys.
No Export for You: Only MOTHER 2 was released in America, under the name EarthBound. Europe got it even worse, as none of the three games were ever released there.
Our Time Travel Is Different: Ness' party travels to Giygas' lair, a cavern at the center of the Earth teeming with plant life, but it's otherwise empty. They deduce that Giygas is attacking from the distant past, and use Dr. Andonuts' phase distorter to send them there.
After disappearing at EarthBound's climax, Porky got lost in extensive time travel abuse, to the point where by the time of MOTHER 3 it's warped him to be an immortal old man with the mind of a child.
The Pin Is Mightier Than the Sword: The Franklin Badge, which reflects electrical attacks back at the opponent. Played for Drama in Mother 3, when Claus intentionally commits suicide by shooting lightning at Lucas.
The Power of Rock: Ninten's mission to reassemble the song of Queen Mary, the only weapon against Giygas. A similar quest awaits his successor, Ness.
Psychic Powers: As part of the shifting of the traditional setting of the eastern RPG to the modern era, psychic powers - or PSI - act as the analogue of the traditional RPG magic.
Same Story, Different Games: Earthbound shares many plot similarities and musical cues from MOTHER, to the point that some theorize it to be a graphical upgrade of the Famicom title.
Sheathe Your Sword: A full-on assault on Giygas/The Masked Man is pointless. To win, you have to eschew violence (the antithesis of every JRPG at the time) and instead appeal to the humanity inside them.
Star Power: PK Starstorm, exclusive to Poo and Kumatora.
Tank Goodness: A rental. In MOTHER, Lloyd shows up in another tank to defeat the second R-series robot.
Kumatora, Duster and Salsa face a Pork Tank in MOTHER 3.
Theme Naming: Pretty much every location in MOTHER is named after a holiday. Woolseyism changed these names because the translator thought they were silly.
Eagleland's towns are named Onett, Twoson, Threed, and Fourside. The seasonal theme continues in Winters and Summers.
Two Part Trilogy: 21 year gap notwithstanding, Itoi intentionally went in the new direction with MOTHER 3, shrewdly realizing that fans would complain either way.
Most international fans of the series see the second and third games as their own Two Part Trilogy because of the use of Pre Existing Encounters, Damage Over Time, and Porky Minch. It certainly helps that the first game isn't as popular internationally and the Sequel Hook added in its Updated Rereleases doesn't actually lead into either of its sequels.
The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Mt. Itoi in the first game, the Cave of the Past in the second, and the Empire Porky Building, specifically its basement, in the third.
What the Hell, Hero?: Accepting a drink from a woman in a Rock and Roll club in the game will cause a cop to show up, chastise Ninten for drinking under age, and arrest him.
Yin Yang Clash: Just As Ninten and Ness are all about the melody, the main antagonists of MOTHER accordingly have dissonant theme music. (Incidentally, this is the first hint that Porky is going to be trouble.) Giygas has no melody at all, only an incessant, high pitched ring.
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