# Mother 1+2 + Fan Translation or Earthbound Zero?



## Sicklyboy (Jan 18, 2013)

I'm finally gonna do it.  Finally gonna play the Mother series.

I'll of course be emulating them, on my desktop (and tv that's hooked to it).  Obviously, Mother 3 and the fan translation is a no brainer.  I'll be playing Earthbound since it's native English and not a translation, and I think SNES will display better than super-scaled GBA.  My main question, though, as far as Mother 1 gameplay goes, do I go with Mother 1 and the fan translation off of Mother 1+2 GBA, or do I go with Earthbound Zero?  I know EB0 is harder, which doesn't phase me much, I've played it a little; text is a bit Engrishy though, but music is original.  Mother 1 GBA though, much better translation, better gameplay (isometric as opposed to tile based, from what I hear, though I don't specifically have memory of EB0 being tile based either...) but I heard some of the music is swapped out and not as good as the original.  Also, I have it up on my TV right now, and it doesn't scale as nicely (poor eyesight and sitting 15 feet away ought to fix that though).

What do you guys recommend?  I'm gonna start on Mother 1 tonight, GBA version, but if I should then I'll switch to EB0.

Also, is EB0 a complete game?  The prototype was finished by someone after it was dumped, right?


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## RodrigoDavy (Jan 18, 2013)

I played Earthbound Zero, in the beggining it's not that hard, but as you go through it you'll find it to be ridiculously hard. It's the type of game where the more levels you achieve the harder it is to get to the next level, but there's one part where monster are incredibly strong and you are forced to battle the weaker monster which just doesn't give you enough experience to level up properly. I quited the game after spending many hours in it  I think I learned the 4th or 5th song by then.

Itoi himself admited to not balacing difficulty well in Mother 1 for famicom (famicom = japanese NES)



> Shigesato Itoi, the game's designer, said that the last parts of _Mother_ were not tested for bugs and balance issues. When talking about this at a _Mother 1 + 2_ promotional event, Itoi humorously stated, "When we got to fine-tuning the difficulty there, I was like, 'Whatever!'"
> 
> source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_(video_game)


 
If the gba version is more balanced, I say go for it. (And the gba music sounds great in my gba SP at least, not as good as the original pitfully)

EDIT: Just to add, as far as I remember the GBA version of mother 1 resembles well the graphics of the nes version. Of course with a lower resolution and the characters are hard to see in a tiny screen. (Should not be a problem since you're using a TV)


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## DaggerV (Jan 18, 2013)

I can't vouch for it since I didn't see it to completion, but I started on EB0, Mother 2/Earthbound is and probably will always be my top 10 game


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## Rydian (Jan 18, 2013)

Turns out "EB0" was actually an official translation, it's just when it was dumped nobody believed the guy, and then when other people went and patched out the AP/bugs (and edited the title screen), people started thinking those versions were the original too... <edit>Editing the screen to say 0 IIRC.</edit>

Anyways I suggest 1+2 for the first game, since it's not like you're getting gimped controls (NES to GBA maps just fine), it's a more recent translation, and has minor fixes and upgrades.

Of course Earthbound official for number 2, the translation's well-done actually.  The seemingly-strange way they talk is how the series works, more natural speech.


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## Sicklyboy (Jan 18, 2013)

Started playing Mother 1 last night through VBA, and it does indeed scale perfectly.  No blurs, all of the pixels are nice and clear cut, nice and blocky how it should be.  And it's fun.  I'm playing it with the Easy Ring on, I just got Pippi from the cemetery and I'm level 9.  Wonder if that's too quickly to level or not...


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## izder456 (Aug 5, 2019)

Sicklyboy said:


> I'm finally gonna do it.  Finally gonna play the Mother series.
> 
> I'll of course be emulating them, on my desktop (and tv that's hooked to it).  Obviously, Mother 3 and the fan translation is a no brainer.  I'll be playing Earthbound since it's native English and not a translation, and I think SNES will display better than super-scaled GBA.  My main question, though, as far as Mother 1 gameplay goes, do I go with Mother 1 and the fan translation off of Mother 1+2 GBA, or do I go with Earthbound Zero?  I know EB0 is harder, which doesn't phase me much, I've played it a little; text is a bit Engrishy though, but music is original.  Mother 1 GBA though, much better translation, better gameplay (isometric as opposed to tile based, from what I hear, though I don't specifically have memory of EB0 being tile based either...) but I heard some of the music is swapped out and not as good as the original.  Also, I have it up on my TV right now, and it doesn't scale as nicely (poor eyesight and sitting 15 feet away ought to fix that though).
> 
> ...


This may be a comical sin in ones eye. But I think the twenty fifth anniversary edition romhack is the creme de la creme of mother 1. The sprites most closely resemble the orig clay models. All of the graphics are redone beautifully. And it won't scale so horribly on your display setup.


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## Jonna (Aug 8, 2019)

izder456 said:


> This may be a comical sin in ones eye. But I think the twenty fifth anniversary edition romhack is the creme de la creme of mother 1. The sprites most closely resemble the orig clay models. All of the graphics are redone beautifully. And it won't scale so horribly on your display setup.


I think the OP probably finished all 3 games at this point, considering he first started playing over 6 years ago. 

But I could be wrong.


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## Viri (Aug 8, 2019)

Lol, nice necro bump! Well OP, did you finish all 3 games?! Don't leave us hanging!


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