Starmen and Music - The Mother Thread

WE LACK A THREAD AND I WANT TO RAMBLE ABOUT IT. So yeah... Mother. It's a thing. To be more specific a neat little series of JRP Gs.

I've been fond of the series for a while now, but haven't really made too much of an attempt to beat any of them since my savestate in Mother got borked and I didn't feel like going through what I stupidly neglected to save and make backup states for.

Recently I started a new attempt at the first game where I actually remember to save and make back up states and such. I've gotten Lloyd and have to level his ass up. So far I must say that the game hasn't aged as badly as some other NES RP Gs. It plays at a nice breezy pace. Leveling isn't too long or difficult of an affair (yet anyway), there's a run button, text doesn't take three hours to scroll by, and you can warp too and from Magicant with an item as opposed to walking painfully across the whole world (god I hope there is a more general warp ability though). The music is also pretty good for an RPG and doesn't suffer from the early Dragon Quests' amazingly short and painful musical loop problem for the most part.

I have noted a few flaws here and there though. Mother uses that horrid command menu system to do things like talk and check objects. Thankfully it doesn't require this for moving up and down stairs and opening doors... The inventory space given to you is painfully small, but that's to be expected I suppose. Story wise there isn't much at all really. I mean why is Ninten doing any of this anyway? WHAT IS MY MOTIVATION?! Well I know the plot and how it ends but if I didn't my motivation would be "Stopping weird shit that seems to be occurring for no reason other than 'aliens'". Beyond that there isn't too much going on.

There are a few moments that do strike me though. Like when you leave Magicant for the first. You see a man standing in front of some open space. It could either be a door or window. I interpreted it as the latter though. He goes on to talk about how he is a forgotten man and how lonely he is. If you try to help him via relating to him he gets angry and tells you that you don't understand. If you try to help him by telling him that he isn't a forgotten man he stops talking with you. He says that sometimes even breathing is too hard. Eventually when you tell him that he is a forgotten man he disappears through the opening. It seems very much like a suicide. The second thing that struck me is finding a pass to enter the rocket lab. The rocket lab that is infested with mad scientists and robots and guarded by an angry dog. Which seems oddly like some poor man got murdered on his way back. Or maybe he ran away and shat his pants. Before that you learn that Lloyd is bullied a lot and there's a janitor who you help come to realize that his marriage is not so bad after all... It just feels so odd to see all this in an RPG for the NES.

It's horribly unbalanced too.

Oh yes I forgot to mention the balance...

Thank you!

Ninten's motivation is to collect the melody parts to make Queen Mary able to sing again, that, and to find out the mystery behind all the kidnappings.

That's what I meant by "stopping weird shit that seems to be happening for no other reason than 'aliens'".

I've played/beaten Mother 3 and am in the process of playing Earthbound right now.

I like that quirky sense of humor the series has, and the writing is pretty top-notch, but I find the gameplay to be terribly boring. >_<

Yeah, Mother 3 is definitely an improvement in terms of gameplay.

As for balance. In Earthbound, I kind of didn't like how sort of useless Poo was, and how ridiculously strong Ness became in comparison to the others.

Also, the drop rates.

Never again will I try to get that goddamn Sword of Kings.

The Mother series is probably one of my favorite videogame series that I've never gotten to play. I still regret that.

Poo is relatively useless? Huh...

Might get into this series. What should I try first? and if you can direct me to where I can find each, so much the better.

Depends, are you looking for storytelling coherency or ease of entrance? Oh and look here  ^*

edited 2nd Feb '11 8:22:19 PM by TheGinkei

I'd be a liar if I said I liked RPGS for the gameplay. So best story for first suggestion. Gameplay will be second. Followed by ease of entrance for third.

Part 1: That depends what you want out of "best story." If you're looking for coherency of the series' overall plot, start at the beginning. If you're looking for most solid storytelling in a standalone game, take the second or third game.

Part 2 + 3: MOTHER 3, hands down.

If we go by best individual story then the third game is your best bet. If you want to see the whole story unfold then start with the first game and work your way through them. I would personally go with the latter suggestion but that's because I like moving through everything...

I should probably take Aon's suggestion. For a while there, I though all the games were standalone stories.

Should I play the standard Earthbound Zero or "Earthbound Easy"?

edited 2nd Feb '11 9:35:25 PM by Schitzo

If don't like grinding, Earthbound Easy. Earthbound Zero is a really brutal game.

SUGGESTION TAKEN. Holy shit I hate grinding XD!

Tbh, Earthbound Zero isn't that brutal beyond a couple trouble spots like the endgame and the haunted house. I mean it is harder than the other two, but it's still one of the easiest NES RP Gs I've ever played, except maybe Dragon Quest IV. Honestly, all the people that complain about Earthbound Zero's difficulty are pansies. And do YOU want to be a pansy? Hmm??

Believe me, Barry, I don't want to slog through 5 hours of mashing auto or fight when I've done the same thing for every other Dragon Quest. My main beef with JRPGS are NOT the difficulty, it's the monotony, lack of interactivity and lack of options stemmed by bad save point management, lack of item planning or just plain beelining.

In an action game (Especially a Metroidvania, which is part RPG) you can compensate for underleveling via twitch reflex and strategy. Its true that you can find your ways around fights in an RPG via buffs, debuffs and exploiting weaknesses, but if the Goomba can kill you just because you haven't spent enough time killing things even lower than the goomba... well?

edited 3rd Feb '11 9:28:11 AM by Schitzo

Dude, how the hell does your dad know how many hippies you've been fucking up?

edited 3rd Feb '11 10:08:58 AM by Schitzo

Hey, they attacked me first. >:V

I really should play my EB cartridge again. It's been ages.

edited 3rd Feb '11 10:45:54 AM by AzureRyuujin

Your dad has a camera he puts on you. He also has the ability to call you through said device to tell you that you've been playing the game too long.

"No crying until the end."

There's something supremely bittersweet about that tagline. I think about these little innocents having to square of against cosmic horrors and... once I teared up a little.