Do I need to play earthbound before mother 3?

>it defined their childhood.
Bullshit. Fucking no one in America played it back then.

Why not start with original Mother, AKA EarthBound Beginnings?

This. I didn't play Earthbound until way later through emulation.

I'm an old fucker who had Earthbound in 1996, AMA

Yes. Play both, EB first and then M3.

You don't need to play M1 though, it's aged terribly.

What's the difference between M1 and EB? Isn't the same game but translated by treehose?

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There are 3 games.
Mother was only released in Japan.
Mother 2 was renamed Earthbound in the west.
Mother 3 is Mother 3.

Earthbound has better atmosphere.

Make sure to take your meds before sleep, gramps

This. Mother 3 is much better in terms of structure. Combat has more depth, incentivising you to be more strategic with how you handle boss fights, rather than just blasting through with bottle rockets, and whatever PSI they're vulnerable to. Much stronger narrative, with strong sense of world building, along with actual fleshed out character development. Even all the NPCs in your village have at the very least minor forms of development or significance to the story, creating this sense of community.

I too watch the AVGN

Because it has almost nothing to do with Mother 3. The reason OP is asking whether he should play EarthBound first is for potential context or connection required for Mother 3

Yes and you need to play mother 1 before earthbound

If you don't like Earthbound chances are you won't like Mother 3.

Why? And this is coming from someone who played the series in order. There's nothing significant I can think of that carries over from the first MOTHER to MOTHER 3

Is there it's some kind of romhack or anything that attempts to balance our the terrible grinding of mother 1?

I haven't played M3, but I played Earthbound for the first time when ti came to Virtual Console on Wii U. Maybe M3 is better, but EB is sitll great and definitely worth playing

even though I prefer earthbound, mother 3 does have the better combat system. earthbounds combat system becomes broken as fuck half way through once jeff is able to get multi bottle rockets

No, but I'd recommend you do anyway. M3 is mostly self contained but there are some small carry over stuff which is better if you have played EB first. Mostly stuff relating to Porky

Yeah, there's some patches out there for it.

Just be prepared for lots of BS status effects.

Starmen's Easy patch doubles exp gains.

GBA version has the Easy Ring at the beginning of the game which for the most part helps with balancing issues

There were all these long-ass cutscenes in mother 3 that really took me away from the story
That's my main complaint against it

Might give it a shot

I found that I didn't like Mother 3 as much as EB until about halfway through. I didn't like how linear it felt, but I did really enjoy the way it tried to tell a story.
By the time I got past chapter 4 I started to love it. Even though I had the ending spoiled for myself (it's almost impossible not to), I still didn't anticipate anything else that would happen.
They're both very different games, and I could see how someone likes 2 more than 3, but it wouldn't be fair to compare them like you'd compare Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, but more like Mario 64 to Mario Galaxy.
I don't have a definite favourite, but I still judge all three games by how much I enjoyed them, not just by how "Earthbound" they are

Cause they’re all good videogames.

Really? Other than Leder's exposition dump, I can't really think of any cutscenes that were really even that long. Having to read Hinawa's letter twice is pretty dumb though, but I can't really think of any examples other than those two.

>Mother 3 is linear
Whenever I hear people say this I wonder how many of them know that you can actually do Chapter 7 in any order you want. It's really not as linear as people make it out to be

>turn based jrpg
>fun
pick one
even if it's Earthbound

Well yeah, I felt it was too linear because I was only up to chapter 4, it definitely opens up far more after that

Don't buy a million of them?

Mother 3 is overly sappy and I don't like all the swapping between characters/parties. That's a personal taste thing. It's a newer, more modern game and has some better mechanics and quality of life improvements, but it's overall not that different from Earthbound.

Chapter 7 of Mother 3 is actually a lot less linear than the entirety of EarthBound. It's just that most people will tend to follow the recommended order without thinking about it

unless you want to experience the full story arc of one of the series' characters, not really

3 is mostly self-contained with a couple of references here and there

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If anything Mother 3 isn't as good as Earthbound. People just hang onto it because muh sob story and much no localization.

That's a joke, because most people didn't even know it existed until Smash Bros. And until people raved about it when Brawl came out

I didn't even know you could do it in a different order until after I finished it, but surely nobody would have a problem with that anyway

that doesn't change the fact that it's still broken af because of how easy they made it to take advantage of. Especially with how much money you get in this game and how easy it is to buy even the most expensive items in the game.

They only have the same antagonist and lore, no biggie.

I literally haven't seen anyone in this thread that's talked about why they like Mother 3 even mention the sob story or localization factor of it.

yeah but the mom dying is pretty much the central meme for this game, it's got feels fags all over it. then because of no localization the game is "rare" and has some hipster appeal

Think of it like Xenoblade 1 and 2. Playing Earthbound isn't mandatory but it makes the final chapter of Mother 3 more poignant. Like Xenoblade 1 and 2, Earthbound and Mother 3 are also both great games with their very own set of flaws, so I'd say play both.

>tfw need to pass the next 36 hours so i can play sekiro
i think i actually might finish my second playthrough of Mother 3.

>most people didn't even know it existed until Smash Bros.
>Earthbound
You probably weren't even alive in January of '99, let alone sentient. Don't pretend you know what people did and didn't "know" for video game releases in a time before high-speed internet or 8 different consoles you could buy. Earthbound made everyone's lists.

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>Compared a game to Xenoblade Chronicles 2, like it was a good thing
oof

Smash definitely introduced Earthbound to a lot of people. I wasn't one of them but I know none of my friends had any clue about Earthbound growing up until Smash 64

the game was always considered a classic though by anyone who knew about it

Either kill me now or shoot yourself, zoomer. Either way, this thread was a mistake.

Oh please, Xenoblade 2 is one of the best and more lorefilled RPG of this decade. Don't tell me you're actually one of those "IT HAS ANIME TITTIES SO IT'S BAD! I SAW THE DANCE WEBM!" Resetranny.

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if you hear someone talk about mother 3, and the only thing about it they can mention is how sad it is or how it's not localized, then it's obvious they haven't actually played it if that's the only thing they can take away from it

okay

In old and played it the month it came out. I love it but still think mother 3 is a better game

lucas dabbing

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The Mother games aren't really all that great as games except for maybe 3. I'd still recommend giving Earthbound and 3 at least one playthrough because they're fairly unique experiences you can't get elsewhere.

based

Listen, if I can slog through the shitfest that is Mother 1, you can get through Earthbound.
Earthbound's also leagues better, I'll tell you that right now.

EarthBound doesn't expand upon any of the lore established in the first MOTHER. EarthBound may rethread the same story beats from the first MOTHER, but that's literally all it does in terms of any sort of connection to it. There's literally nothing at all in EarthBound that requires any significant context from the first MOTHER to understand. Even if Giygas is the antagonist again, he's a complete departure from how he was in the first game, to where there's very little to connect the two other than speculation and theories. Even Itoi has never really implied there being a legitimate connection between two games. It's just a reimagining of the same premise

Hell, isn't Earthbound in some ways retconning Mother 1?
I think you kill Giygas in an almost infantile state long before he became what he was in Mother 1 at the end of Earthbound, therefore meaning that he could never become the Giygas seen in M1

Also OP wants to play EarthBound for potential context in MOTHER 3. Nothing significant in the first MOTHER is relevant in MOTHER 3.

>muh giygas fetus theory
Stop. Giygas goes into the past to hide himself and you go follow him there.

What? I wasn't going by any theory, I genuinely thought he was some kind of larval stage of his species at the end of Earthbound

No, he's just gone insane because of Ninten absolutely BTFO'ing him before and mommy issues.

That feels like a pretty important detail that carries over from Mother 1 honestly.
It's still obviously easy to follow without having read it but yeah.

Now that I never even considered, but that would absolutely make a lot of sense

The Japanese version had more references to Mother 1 that were all taken out in the English version.

Played it in 2000
Little late to the party but I still have the original cartridge. I'm not sure where it came from.
Must have been from my brothers older friend.

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No it doesn't. Tomato's script comparison shows it doesn't.

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I would have no problem going along with that, in fact, it would work well as a device to justify the contrast of Giygas' behavior between games. There's just no indicator of this to be found anywhere in EarthBound itself, and throughout the game, the story prioritizes Giygas' motivation being tied to the Apple of Enlightenment, and portraying him as this incomprehensible entity.

>Late night EB thread
Neat. My spoiler says that we'll probably get it I hope on the Switch soon. M3 would be nice too.

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I honestly doubt it. Mother as a whole seems like something Nintendo wants the west to forget about outside of Smash.

I can’t get into the combat of earthbound at all, what do I do

The Apple of Enlightenment caused Giygas to get BTFO by Ninten because he thought that Ninten would be the one to defeat him, when it was really Ness.

Frankly the combat isn't great at all. It's just something you'll have to put up with if you enjoy the story/writing.

Is this actually explicitly stated in either of the games? I never caught that.

Explain Earthbound Beginnings and Earthbound being touted as one of the first SNES VC titles on the N3DS

BRAVA EARTHBOUND

BRAVA

Post Kuma doing the Koichi pose

Yes you fucking do. Now suck it up soldier and get on it.

Done and done. Remember to eat a tide pod whenever you feel like it. Faggot.