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I've read the Wikipedia articles about the series and can't figure it out. In Japan, the Earthbound series is called Mother. Why? Not that localizing the game's title to Earthbound makes that much sense either, but why Mother?

This post has been edited by BDZ on 11th May 2007 03:23

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Status:
FF6 -- Finished! Yeah!
FF7 -- Finished (easily, and without KOtR)
FF8 -- End of Disc 3
Secret of Evermore--Leveling up for Salabog

"Go sit over there. Put your seatbelt on."--Squall

Sometimes games are given different names when they migrate to another country. Final Fantasy, for instance, is called "Super Happy Magical Endless Romance Adventure Ultima Quest."

Seriously though, AFAIK the change had no real reason behind it other than to appeal better to american/european audiences.

Interesting read: http://www.lostlevels.org/200407/200407-earthbound2.shtml

Edit: In response to your edit, I think "Mother" meant either "Mother Earth" or was a reference to an alien mothership, given the game's overall setting and storyline. The same goes for Earthbound - they're both somewhat related to space, the earth, and aliens.

This post has been edited by Silverlance on 11th May 2007 03:50

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

Have you read the plot summary for Mother 1 ("Earthbound 0", the prequel to Earthbound)?

If you read it, you might spoil it for yourself, but you might also agree with me in thinking that the reason they called it "Mother" was because of one of the aspects of the plot.

Then again, both the Mother and the Final Fantasy series are kinda like games that can't be named very well anyway.

"Earthbound" may refer to the fact that Giygas is headed toward Earth with plans to destroy it.

Edit

WOOT!! Mother/Earthbound topic!!

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 11th May 2007 14:06

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

From what I know about Mother 3, the name is much more relevant. As for Earthbound, i think it involves Ness's mission to recieve the power of the Earth to defeat Giygas.

But yeah, if you play Mother for the NES, the name makes much more sense.

I'll ask/search starmen.net for a better answer.

And Silverlance, I thought you didn't like Mother.

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Dead Winter. A nice comic.

Know thy enemy.

Actually, while I don't like Earthbound, I can stand it. What I can't understand about it is merely how it can be considered anywhere on par with some of the better known RPGs. I just feel like, say... Breath of Fire II is up here ¯ and Earthbound is down somewhere like... - here. And FF8, like... _ here, laying face-down in the dust.

I did find Earthbound Zero to be fairly good compared to Earthbound. Maybe because it's justified in having a fairly cliché storyline because that was what we expected from games back then, and because the humor was less present and overall more serious than "lol poop fart burp." The SNES counterpart to this game, however, feels like a step backwards from other SNES games. Hence why I feel it's, y'know... - up here and not ¯ up here or even ^ up here.

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

Way to make me feel bad about that fart thing in Winters. Especially since fart jokes are a n-ono for me with movies.

Do you have any interest in Mother 3?

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Dead Winter. A nice comic.

Not really. I've neither followed its developement nor intend to - it's not my series of choice. It was ok on the NES but if it follows in the SNES installement's footsteps, well, getting it will just give me yet another reason to bitch about something.

Interesting side-note: it seems some of the localization issues EB Zero had were in part due to Canada's policy on including a french manual with the game, since the manual was meant to be 80+ pages. Boing!

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

Earthbound is definitely one of my favorite RPGs of all time. And I freaking hate RPGs.

I'm surprised at myself for not buying Mother 1. So, safe to say, I'm somewhat looking forward to Mother 3.

But I doubt I'll buy it, in the end.

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I find your lack of faith disturbing...

Quote (Silverlance @ 11th May 2007 16:23)

Know thy enemy.

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

Know thine enemy's mommy. Here's one of those rare situations where "your mom" jokes actually barely become just kinda relevant.

As for your not liking Earthbound...I'd just say this: Earthbound's setting and style are not meant to be taken with the same type of seriousness as, say, Final Fantasy VI's setting and style. Beyond that, it's a matter of taste. I thoroughly enjoyed the game myself, and while it's definitely not the easiest game for certain people to get into, I'd readily recommend the game to anyone who I feel might like it.

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )