Shigesato Itoi is an popular celebrity in Japan, well known for his his crowning achievement
as a game designer.
Itoi's creation is directly responsible for formation of one of the most popular cult
gaming communities.
The fans of this series have come together with their love and commitment and accomplished
things that many thought impossible.
This is beginning of that story.
This is the MOTHER 1 Iceberg.
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What's in a Name?
The RPG known as MOTHER takes place in modern America and follows the story of a young boy
named Ninten along with his friends who use their skills and magical powers to stop an
alien invasion.
But, its possible that you've never heard of it before due to its odd naming situation.
MOTHER known by several different names.
Due to MOTHER 2 releasing internationally as "Earthbound," the naming convention for
the first game became muddied.
Many refer to the game simply as "MOTHER 1," but just simply calling is "MOTHER" is also
accepted.
The name "Earthbound Zero" is another fairly common name used over the years, although,
it fell out of fashion after Nintendo later officially localized the game internationally
as "Earthbound Beginnings" in 2015.
Lost in Translation After its release in Japan, Nintendo fully intended to make MOTHER 1 available
internationally.
Following the success of Final Fantasy in the west, Nintendo asked Phil Sandhop, the
man responsible for its localization, to work on MOTHER 1.
Sandhop's and his team had a huge challenge: translating the game's unique style of humor
and dialogue.
Many gameplay improvements were implemented, such as a run button and a more fleshed out
ending.
The script was entirely completed and Nintendo even began advertising the game as "Earthbound"
in Nintendo Power.
But, even though all of the pieces were in place, the game was held back from release.
I'm sure you could point to several things like Nintendo's Marketing analysis not showing
the best data or that the Super Nintendo would be releasing soon.
Whatever the reason, MOTHER 1 did not release internationally on the NES.
Years later, in 1998, a prototype cart popped up on a retro game auction site.
The buyer ended up striking a deal with a group of dedicated fans who intended on translating
the game themselves.
They agreed to pay $400 to borrow the cart and dump the ROM.
After a few adjustments were made, the ROM released online as "EarthBound Zero" to differentiate
between the "Earthbound" released on the Super Nintendo.
Many people doubted the legitimacy of this cart, but after Phil Sandhop himself was asked
about it, he said "Without a doubt, that game's text is what I wrote."
This version of the game would go on to be released as Earthbound Beginnings.
A Rocky Start When Itoi originally presented the game idea to Shigeru Miyamoto, he was
rejected due to the commercial failure of other Famicom games produced by celebrities.
Apparently, Itoi was so devastated by the rejection, that he cried on the train ride
home.
Later on though, he was called back by Miyamoto who had a change of heart and was willing
to give the game a chance.
Rushed Balancing Itoi has mentioned that towards the end of development, time was very short
so they rushed through the debugging phase and balancing the difficulty of the final
area, "Mt.
Itoi."
In his own words: "When we got to fine-tuning the difficulty there, I was like, 'Whatever!'"
Too Many Encounters The encounter rate in this game is infamously out of control due
to the back end of development being rushed.
This in turn made much of the early game extremely hard.
It was so much of a problem that modders have created patches specifically to lower encounter
rates and make the game less irritating to casual and hardcore fans alike.
Censorship In the releases past the original Japanese one, MOTHER 1 is censored in several
spots to remove possible offensive material or religious references.
For example, the Crow enemy had its cigarette removed and had its feathers lightened for...
some reason.
The Devil Truck was renamed to PsychoTruck the bloody wounds that the gang zombie had
were removed as well.
There are many many other small changes like these.
Holiday Towns The setting of MOTHER 1, America, has a couple of the harmless changes made
were to the town names.
In the Japanese version, many of the towns were named after holidays, like the towns
of Halloween and Thanksgiving, which were altered to be Spookane and Merrysville respectively.
Phil Sandhop himself commented on the naming convention saying: "Itoi originally wrote
them to sound friendly.
I don't believe that towns named after holidays was friendly.
Matter of fact I thought it sounded stupid and thought older players would really be
turned off.
I wanted it to be enjoyable for all ages."
MOTHER 1 + 2 MOTHER 1 + 2 is a compilation of MOTHER 1 and MOTHER 2 released in Japan
for the Game Boy Advance in 2003.
It was originally intended to promote the upcoming release of MOTHER 3 as seen in this
commercial.
The games are very similar to the originals, but do include some changes.
The previously mentioned censorship and ending were added in but new fonts and sound effects
also make their way into this port since not all of the originals were compatible with
the GBA hardware.
Giygas Name The main antagonist of MOTHER 1 and Earthbound is commonly known as Giygas
by English speaking fans, but it's a bit more complicated than you'd think.
In the original Japanese release, his name is Gyiyg, and then in Earthbound Beginnings,
this is altered to be Giegue.
Finally, in Earthbound, his name internationally is changed to Giygas, but remains Gyiyg in
the Japanese version.
Giegue is Mewtwo The development team that worked on MOTHER, Ape Inc, actually went on
to form Creatures Inc, who work on the Pokemon games.
For this reason, many fans look at Giegue and point out the striking similarities between
him and Mewtwo.
It's possible that that Giegue's design influenced Mewtwo's iconic look.
Name in The Cave When looking at the game's map all together, it seems like there may
be a hidden message in one of the cave systems.
If you roate and move around several caves from the final area in the game, Mount Itoi,
it very clearly spells out Gyiyg's name.
This may just be a coincidence, and if so, what a wild one it is.
Franklin Badge Even if you're not a MOTHER fan, you still may recognize the Franklin
Badge as the item in Smash Bros that lets you reflect projectiles.
The iconic Franklin Badge is featured prominently in every entry of the MOTHER series.
So much so that there are several different real life releases of the item for collectors.
But, have you ever wondered why it's named "Franklin Badge?"
Well, the in game description shines a bit of light on that question.
"Legend says that Ben Franklin wore this reflective badge during his experiments with lightning."
I guess while Ben was flying his kites, he was wearing one of these bad boys.
Magicant Secrets While Ninten has not yet made his way into Smash Bros. like Ness and
Lucas have, the Magicant Stage in Super Smash Bros. 3DS and Ultimate is based on the incarnation
of Magicant from MOTHER 1.
The stage is full of references from both MOTHER 1 and Earthbound.
The background of the stage will occasionally rip open and show moments from Ness and Ninten's
adventures.
The Flying Men appear outside of their house as well, ready to assist whichever fighter
touches them first in battle.
Dungeon Man also makes an appearance on the stage and in Smash Ultimate if you zoom the
camera into him, you can see the character Brick Road's face on the wall.
Ninten's Name The Main Character of MOTHER 1 is named Ninten.
Well... sort of.
Originally in the marketing of the game, Ninten was referred to as "Boku" which is "Me" in
Japanese.
They clearly intended to treat this character as a self-insert.
Later on in the MOTHER 1 novelization, the author decided to name him Ken since there
was no established name.
So why is he called Ninten?
Well, many times when debugging games and taking development screenshots, Nintendo would
name the main character "Ninten" as a fun reference or signature.
You can even see this in the Japanese instruction manual for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to
The Past.
The name Ninten being MOTHER 1's protagonist started becoming the proper nomenclature during
the late 90s for some reason, and was finally cemented in Super Smash Bros. Brawl where
there is a sticker of him cthat uses the name "Ninten".
MOTHER Novel The MOTHER 1 novelization was written by Saori Kumi, who also worked on
some Dragon Quest novels as well as the MOTHER 2 novel.
The book is only in Japanese and covers the events of the game with a bit more detail.
MOTHER 1 Album In August 1989, a MOTHER themed studio album was released on cassette and
CD in Japan.
Rather than only using the music directly from the game itself, MOTHER features entirely
new arrangements were made based on existing songs in MOTHER.
This album was a collaborative effort between popular Japanese rock star Keiichi Suzuki
along with chiptune pioneer and future president of Creatures Inc Hirokazu Tanaka.
Vocal work was done by Catherine Warwick, Jeb Milton, and the St. Paul's Cathedral Choir.
Interestingly, the lyrics of the album are all in English because of the original intent
to localize the game.
Since those plans had changed, the album stayed Japan exclusive until 2015, when Earthbound
Beginnings was released internationally on Wii U.
MOTHER Music Revisited In 2021, Keiichi Suzuki composed a re-imagined version of the album
with Hirokazu Tanaka.
None of the original vocal artists returned for this album, and in turn, Suzuki performed
all of the lead vocals himself.
You're an Inspiration, Charlie Brown!
According to Phil Sandhop, the game's graphics and gameplay were both designed to have a
"Peanuts" feel to them.
Peanuts is arguably the most influential comic strip in the world, so it's understandable
that Itoi would use it as inspiration to create something American audiences would resonate
with.
This would turn out to be a problem during the translation process since many character
sprites had distinct similarities to Peanuts characters.
Fearing a possible lawsuit, the sprites were changed to be less Peanuts inspired.
MOTHER 1 Commercial This commercial aired in Japan to advertise the release of MOTHER
1.
It shows Ninten, Ana, and Loid fighting against R7038XX.
The end of the credits has the iconic line "no crying until the end" which would become
a staple of the series.
Interestingly, the identities of the children that acted in the commercial are unknown.
Encyclopedia MOTHER Encyclopedia MOTHER is a book released alongside the original Japanese
game that acted as a companion guide to the game.
Extremely detailed descriptions of characters, lore, locations not found in the game are
hidden within its pages.
Some of the facts get pretty specific like Ninten's canon blood type being A and how
he spends his time after school.
Unused Enemies In the files of the game, there are 2 unused enemies.
Pippi, the temporary party member, and this possessed pillow.
The pillow is a typical unused enemy, but Pippi is much more interesting.
Her stats are all over the place.
Most of them are just random low numbers, but her PP stat is absurdly high.
This is pretty odd, because if we operate on the assumption that you were intended to
fight her before gaining her as a party member, her PP far exceeds that of the amount needed
for such an early section of the game.
Bread Crumbs The Bread Crumbs are an item that, when used, are dropped by Ninten in
order to leave a trail.
If the crumbs then get used again, it will transport Ninten to the origin of the bread
trail An oversight involving this item allows you to teleport to this normally inaccessible
area.
This can only be performed in the Japanese version.
Keeping EVE Normally, the character E.V.E is a temporary party member that you lose
access to on Mt.
Itoi.
You can actually keep her for the rest of your playthrough by performing an odd glitch.
The Flea Bag is an item used to lower an enemy's offense and defense.
If you spam this item during the fight with R7038XX, you can make EVE take such low amounts
of damage that the fight will reach the 255 turns, which is the maximum number.
At this point the fight will forcibly finish and EVE will remain in your party even though
she should be dead.
There are some weird side effects of this glitch, one of which is EVE turning into a
stack of random NPC sprites.
Like many others, this glitch only works in the Japanese version of the game.
Several Final Party Setups Many people finish the game with Ninten, Ana, and Lloyd, but
there are actually many different possibilities.
For example, Ana is entirely optional, so you could just beat the game with Ninten and
Lloyd.
You can also beat the game solo with Ninten, but this has a pretty complex setup and is
very difficult to pull off.
The Secret Land Mine In the Yucca Desert, there is a single tile with an event attached
to it.
If Ninten steps on the tile, a land mine will blow up in his face.
You take no damage and a message will pop up.
"Keep this place to yourself, please.
Signed, Shigesato Itoi."
Looks like we didn't follow his instructions...
MOTHER Encore MOTHER Encore is fan-made reimagining of the original game.
With a new art style and updated gameplay mechanics, it aims to bring MOTHER 1 a bit
closer to Earthbound and MOTHER 3 in terms of feel.
It's currently being developed by a group of extremely dedicated fans, and while a release
sate hasn't been announced, it seems that development is going smoothly.
MOTHER Encore is planned as a completely free PC release.
Phone Call After the credits of the game, this image of Ninten's Father attempting to
call him is shown.
It would seem that they were setting up a second game where Ninten would presumably
appear, although this never happened.
This is also relevant because this is the only time we ever seen Ninten's father in
the series, making Ness the only main protagonist whose father is completely unseen.
MOTHER 1 was a game very ahead of its time in terms of aesthetic.
At a time when most RPGs were set in fantasy lands, MOTHER took a bit of inspiration from
Dragon Quest and turned the concept on its head.
It was the first domino in a series of complicated events that would help create a dedicated
community as well inspire creators to make their own games like Undertale, Eastward,
and Omori.
Due to fan dedication, Earthbound Beginnings was finally added to the Switch and it's possible
that with even more support, Nintendo will preserve this important piece of gaming history
down the line.
Like it says in the song POLLYANNA, "I believe a dream can still come true."