Mother 3! The sequel to Earthbound!

I will say that although M3 is the superior game in every way, EB is still my fav bcz it was the one i played first and also the overall tone is a little more lighthearted, also it has a gay child who's in love w his best friend which helloooo queer visibility way ahead of its time

speaking of queer visibility, my understanding from the way people talk about it whenever i google it is that the magyspies are the reason nintendo won't ever put out mother 3 internationally. i am personally fine with an immortal race of genderqueer drag queens who keep the world whole through their presence. it was fassad that rankled (but then *SPOILER* he is also a magypsy, which makes me feel better about it)

also i'm just now picking up on "fassad" = "facade." i bet the fans who translated the game think they're hilarious for this

Mother 3 is more sophisticated than Earthbound, but comparing the two feels like apples and oranges. I feel similarly about, idk, SMB & SMB3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8_huZmO0aQ

yoooo

you can't make me watch that

I ordered a translated copy of Mother 1+2 a few days ago so I’m about to find out. will report back with my results. I know there are hacked versions with an “easy ring” item that double your xp and cash, but I’m curious about its difficulty..

― josh az (2011nostalgia), Sunday, June 14, 2020 7:55 PM (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

I finished the first Mother game last night (w/o the easy ring) and PHEW it is tough. You've got to do hours of grinding and it's hard to know where to go next without a walkthrough. Sometimes you'll defeat an enemy, take two steps you'll get attacked by another enemy right away. there's lots to enjoy though... the music's great, the charm's still there and the battles are often quite fun (especially the last boss fight which has wonderfully creepy 8-bit sound effects). It's obvs inferior to its two successors but it's neat for what it is

aw man now i'm done all the mother games and I feel sad :( i don't know what to play now.. is this what's finally gonna make me pick up Undertale

play undertaaaaaale

Undertale disappointed me, it has some truly funny moments but the overall vibe for me felt try-hard and too impressed w itself

I GUESS

We don't have an Undertale thread?

I've picked it back up after feeling similar to Stevie D(eux) upthread: Fun, but a little tedious and gratingly try-hard in places.
But I was filled with determination and managed to complete it. Once I was in the swing of it, it really came into its own.
It did start off like a lol pastiche of Earthbound-style RPGs, which felt a bit futile considering Earthbound is a pastiche in its own right.
But there's a LOT more to Undertale than mere wacky laffs. Toby Fox has thought it through and put in a lot more love and care into the lore, the plot and the playability than first meets the eye.
And yes, it can be frustratingly slow-going at first, but *SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS* once I played it through, I was hooked enough to go right through and play it again (TWICE!). In fact successive playthroughs are much more fun: I found faster workarounds, tons of Easter Eggs (anyone else discovered 'Hard Mode' yet?) and the plot makes a lot more sense and is actually very touching.

It’s a pretty quick game that you’re supposed to play through a few times, right?

yes, relatively quick. I did stumble a couple of times and gave up the first play through. I guess it's no big secret that it can be played in different ways and that the story alters not just according to the decisions you make, but how many times you've played it. For example *minor spoiler*, the third time through, one of the characters launches into his usual spiel before stopping and saying 'Wait, you're looking at me as though you've heard this all before...'. It's done in quite a knowing way, but it's genuinely amusing and unsettling at times. I even heard that it is smart enough to know when a player is trying to 'game' the system by doing crafty resets. There are loads of guides online on how to get past some of the more tricky puzzles and enemies if it does get too tedious

And as I say, the different styles of play-through depend on different playing styles. So, one style depends very much on logical decisions whereas another depends almost entirely on arcade-style reflexes.

i have only ever played/finished the game on pacfist mode, i cannot bring myself to hurt the monsters out of solidarity

I've finally gotten around to playing Undertale and I just finished my first playthrough (neutral mode)... everything about it is incredible except for the combat? Like yeah, it's cool that you can spare monsters and talk to them, but it would be so much more interesting if it was more complex in the way that most 90s JRPGs are!!! it also just felt too easy, but maybe it'll be harder if i try pacifist mode

the characters, music, setting, story, writing, retro graphics, commentary on violence in video games, etc, are all 10/10 amazing though. the dialogue with burgerpants might be the hardest I've ever laughed in a game

Completing it on neutral is just half the game. Pacifist and genocide (and there are a few secret modes too) is where it gets proper full on. I agree, it's a shame it's really quite a linear playthrough but I guess it's more of a parody of JRPGs than an actual one. I love the music score

there was a time where my son would exclusively request undertale OST in the car

and

i have only ever played/finished the game on pacfist mode, i cannot bring myself to hurt the monsters out of solidarity

― methinks dababy doth bop shit too much (m bison), Wednesday, August 5, 2020 11:49 AM (seven months ago) bookmarkflaglink

still true

flowey is taunting me into trying the game on pacifist mode so i guess i'm gonna do that next

and lol i can't imagine having the Undertale soundtrack playing all the time in the car, i'd feel like i'm trapped in a cartoon

i listen to stuff like that when i'm working. big fan of "Shop"

who could hate on a bit of this https://open.spotify.com/track/2w1FN8hCcAPs10rQw8g20L?si=VYJYQwNHTnydHarM0okrEA

I really should replay Undertale, I think I got most of the way through but never finished it and it was great but not excellent.

Are the routes discussed or explained anywhere within the game? Like is there any suggestion that a player should do things a certain way?