History EarthBound / TropesTToZ

* {{Telepathy}}: Used throughout the story. Paula is particularly adept at it, calling out to Ness and later Jeff.

* TwoDecadesBehind: Although it takes place in [[TheNineties "199X"]], pay phones are still widely used, there are no household computers (but they do appear to have [[EasterEgg Nintendo games]]), and a lot of the slang is TotallyRadical.

* TotalPartyKill: High-level PK Flash spells as well as "glorious light" enemy attacks have a chance of inflicting instant death upon anyone who is hit. Both of these attacks hit the entire opposing party, and they have a fixed percentage chance of an instant kill ''regardless'' of the levels or stats of the entities involved. Naturally, [[spoiler:most]] [[ContractualBossImmunity bosses]] are immune to this effect, but your entire party can be wiped out instantly if your luck is bad enough when fighting enemies that can use these attacks.

* UselessItem: The Suporma is a parody of the concept, and the Bicycle is a more standard version, given your party has to be completely empty (aside from Ness) in order to ride it.

** {{Averted}} with the status effect inducing PSI. Most bosses in the game will at least have ''one'' status they're weak to that has at least a fifty percent chance of working on them, while also having a few that have a ten percent chance of working on them. The ''real'' problem with these status' is [[GuideDangit trying to figuring out which bosses are weak to what.]]

* VitriolicBestBuds: Ness and Porky, it seems. [[spoiler:Until the latter's [[StartOfDarkness road]] [[FaceHeelTurn to]] [[FromNobodyToNightmare villainy]].]]

* UpdatedRerelease[=/=]CompilationRerelease: This game and [[VideoGame/MOTHER1 its predecessor]] have been compiled into a single cartridge and rereleased for the GameBoyAdvance under the title ''MOTHER 1+2'' ([[NoExportForYou only in Japan, of course]]).

* VideogameSettings:
** AbsurdlySpaciousSewer[=/=]SewerLevel: The sewers under Fourside.
** BossCorridor[=/=]WombLevel: The tubing of the Devil's Machine leading to Giygas.
** BubblegloopSwamp: Deep Darkness.
** BubblyClouds[=/=]FloatingContinent[=/=]{{Wutai}}: Dalaam.
** BuildLikeAnEgyptian: The pyramid in Scaraba.
** DugTooDeep: The mole tunnel in the Dusty Dunes Desert.
** ElaborateUndergroundBase: Giygas's army has one at Stonehenge. The second half of it counts as a BlackoutBasement.
** FirstTown: [[MeaningfulName One]]tt.
** HiddenElfVillage: Saturn Valley.
** LethalLavaLand: The Fire Spring dungeon.
** TheMaze: Talah Rama's monkey tunnels and the mole maze in the Dusty Dunes Desert, Brick Road's dunegon (and his insides as Dungeon Man), Moonside's teleportation [=NPCs=], and the inside of the Stonehenge Base, just to name a few.
** MirrorWorld: Moonside is one to Fourside.
** MonsterTown: Threed.
** PortTown: Summers, and its sub-town Toto.
** {{Prehistoria}}: The Lost Underworld. Doubles as a MacroZone.
** ShiftingSandLand: The Dusty Dunes Desert and Scaraba.
** SlippySlideyIceWorld: Winters.

* [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Woobie, Destroyer of Universes]]: See Tear Jerker in the YMMV tab. If you've played the first game, Giygas's lines come off very differently. This doesn't make him any [[EldritchAbomination less]] [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm terrifying.]]

* [[YouWakeUpInARoom You Wake Up In A Cave]]: After [[StupidityIsTheOnlyOption following a suspicious looking woman further into the hotel in Threed]], your party gets [[TapOnTheHead knocked unconscious]] and is trapped in a tomb deep underground. The only possible way to get out is to [[{{Telepathy}} telepathically]] call out to your next party member, Jeff, for him to help you out.

** Played straight, then subverted. Pray is pretty much pointless to have, since its effects are typically random and is more likely to put a dangerous ailment on the party rather than do anything to contribute to the fight. [[spoiler:Then you get to the end...]]

* TagLine: The Japanese tagline stated this was a game that adults, children and ladies could enjoy. The American ads instead warned that the game stinks.

** The towns are named by numbers, for their climate, or for musical references.

** The Territorial Oak is a nuisance to first-time players for being the first enemy in the game you encounter that always self-destructs upon death which will always leave you worse off after the battle or even give you an early game over. Their relatives (Hostile Elder Oaks) will make your venture through the Deep Darkness Swamp even more unpleasant.

** Atomic Power Robots (Stonehenge Base) and Nuclear Reactor Robots (Cave of the Past) can cause you a lot of grief in terms of recovery items and PP wasted on post-battle healing.

** Parodied with Slot Machine Brothers -- Pincho, Pancho, and Tomás Jefferson.

* ThisLoserIsYou: Pokey and, to a lesser extent, [[SmallNameBigEgo Orange Kid]].

** It also turns out that the original Phase Distorter prototype wasn't exactly safe, either, as ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER 3}}'' shows that [[spoiler: Porky Minch]] was eventually given AgeWithoutYouth from abusing it.

* TooDumbToLive: Exactly ''why'' does Buzz Buzz hover over to Lardna after Pokey and Picky are sent to their room?

* TorturedMonster: Giygas. "...It hurts, ...it hurts... Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness... I'm... h... a... p... p... y..." It's even worse if you've played [[VideoGame/MOTHER1 the game before this]], because you'll understand why.

* UndisclosedFunds: Played straight in ''MOTHER 2'', but not in ''[=EarthBound=]''. During localization, for some reason a couple of vague references meaning roughly "a bajillion dollars" were changed to real numbers (Ness' family's debt to Pokey's family is "a hundred thousand dollars or more" and the Diamond "could pay off a million dollar debt easily").

** Played straight, then subverted. Pray is pretty much pointless to have, since its effects are typically random and is more likely to put a dangerous ailment on the party rather than do anything to contribute to the fight. [[spoiler: Then you get to the end...]]

* VitriolicBestBuds: Ness and Pokey. [[spoiler: Until the latter's [[StartOfDarkness road]] [[FaceHeelTurn to]] [[FromNobodyToNightmare villainy]].]]

* WakeUpCallBoss: Frank Fly and his robot, Frankystein Mk II are the first real boss battle you have. They are not particularly difficult, but you do need to know what you are doing by that point.
* WeaksauceWeakness: Buzz Buzz is a competent PSI user, and he can shield everyone in the party completely during the first boss. However, physically being [[spoiler:not]] a bee, he dies when he gets swatted by Pokey's mom.

* [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Woobie, Destroyer of Universes]]: See Tear Jerker in the YMMV tab. If you've played the first game, Giygas' lines come off very differently. This doesn't make him any [[EldritchAbomination less]] [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm terrifying.]]

** Mocked with the food stand in Happy Happy Village. 'Forget' to pay, and the salesman will hover over you and claim that you'll never know righteousness again.

* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: TropeNamer is Giygas' attacks, and Giygas itself probably qualifies as well. Mr. Saturn's speech is implied to be this, by virtue of the extremely weird font in which it's written.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: Frank Fly is said to be about 20 years old in some of the literature based off the games. (Frank pegs himself as being younger than the legal drinking age if you talk to him during the endgame.)

** {{Averted}} with the status effect inducing PSI. Most bosses in the game will at least have ''one'' status they're weak to that has at least a fifty percent chance of working on them, while also having a few that has a ten percent chance of working on them. The real problem with these status' is [[GuideDangit figuring out which bosses are weak to what.]]

* UselessUsefulSpell: Played straight, then subverted. Pray is pretty much pointless to have, since its effects are typically random and is more likely to put a dangerous ailment on the party rather than do anything to contribute to the fight. [[spoiler: Then you get to the end...]]

** Some fans have noticed the following in the town names: '''One'''[-tt-] + '''Two'''[-son-] + '''Three'''[-d-] + '''Four'''[-side-] '''Sum'''[-mers-]/= '''Ten'''[-da Village-]. It probably wasn't intentional given that the Tenda were originally called "Gumi" in Japanese.

* UselessUsefulSpell: Played straight, then subverted. Pray is pretty much pointless to have, since its effects are typically random and is more likely to put a dangerous ailment on the party rather than do anything to contribute to the fight. [[spoiler: Then you get to the end...]

* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: [[spoiler:'''Inverted!''' Giygas may not be able to hurt you, but ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome you]]'' [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome can certainly hurt]] ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome him]]''!]]

* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: [[spoiler:'''Inverted'''! Giygas may not be able to hurt you, but ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome you]]'' [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome can certainly hurt]] ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome him]]''!]]

* UltimateEvil: Throughout the whole game, you constantly hear about this great evil known as "Giygas" that is supposedly behind everything. However, this is a very rare case where the reveal is actually [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm FAR scarier than what you could have anticipated!]]

* VideoGameCaringPotential: Take care of those Flying Men. [[YouBastard You don't really want to use them all up.]]

* ThisLoserIsYou: Pokey and to a lesser extent, [[SmallNameBigEgo Orange Kid]].

** Nuclear Reactor Robots in the Cave of the Past can cause you a lot of grief in terms of recovery items and PP wasted on post-battle healing.

** Nuclear Reactor Robots in the cave of the past can cause you a lot of grief in terms of recovery items and PP wasted on post-battle healing.

* TakingYouWithMe: One of the potential headaches you'll encounter in battle are enemies that try to destroy your party with an unavoidable, last ditch suicide explosion.
** The Territorial Oak is a nuisance to first-time players for being the first enemy in the game you encounter that always self-destructs upon death which will always leave you worse off after the battle or even give you an early game over.