How Many of you know what Earthbound/Mother is

[Fishaman P]

I have an NES repro of Earthbound Zero custom-made just for me.
So yeah, you could say I know what it is.

 

[frogboy]

Played Earthbound, got bored in an hour, put it down.
Played Mother 3, and I'm now about halfway through.

But to be honest, I only found out about Earthbound through the original Super Smash Bros.

 

[Sterling]

Can we just rename this "The Earthbound circlejerk thread" and have everyone orgasm and be done with it?

I swear we always get a really annoying Earthbound thread once every few months and every post is just filled with the sound of my continued sighing.

Except, as far as I can see it, there's no Earthbound circle jerk. I do see the naysayers have been startled though.

EDIT: The funny thing is how the naysayers put the fans on high alert and defense mode, and then still claim that it's a circle jerk on their part. Haha. That's too funny.

Word of advice, if people like the game for the story, then who are you to say it's shit without backing up your opinion. Go on, wow me with your hand. As a person who's never played any of the games, please convince me why the story is shit, and the gameplay lackluster. I don't care about spoilers, so lay it all on me.

I'm serious. Let's make this a topic about what makes Earthbound bad or good and get this over with quick.

 

[Foxi4]

Except, as far as I can see it, there's no Earthbound circle jerk. I do see the naysayers have been startled though.

It will inevitably lead to a circle jerk in due time, don't worry.

I've skim-read the thread and the moment I reached the magical conclusion that "gameplay is not something to be expected from a story-driven game", I lost hope. Some people think that elevating one aspect of a video game and completely downplaying all the others is a good thing - it's not. What makes a good game is the overall balance of its constituent elements, favoring the ones that are specific to a given genre. Favoring, not "forgetting about the rest".

A video game is a game first and foremost, it's designed with an intention to be played. Similarly, a movie is filmed with an intention to be watched and a book is written with the intention to be read. When your product fails at its most basic, fundamental purpose, your produt is bad. A video game has to be carried by its gameplay, no matter how you look at it. You can have the best *insert element* you could possibly imagine, but if the game simply isn't fun and feels like a chore, people won't play it - they have other, more productive projects they could work on.

To elaborate on this point, these days we often see people complaining about "games that look gorgeous but play like crap/have a poor story/have lackluster features" - this is because one element of the overall product was given far too much attention, making other elements suffer. It's all about the balance, guys.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Me and some guy were having a discussion and it was said that if I asked 1000 people that 10 or so would know what Earthbound/Mother is....so here we go. Do you know what Mother/Earthbound is

Did he say anything about what type of people to ask?
I imagine if you went up to 1000 completely random people on the street, of all ages, 99% of them probably wouldn't know what it was.
But this being a gaming community there's bound to be more than 1% who actually know.

 

[Sterling]

It will inevitably lead to a circle jerk in due time, don't worry.

I've skim-read the thread and the moment I reached the magical conclusion that "gameplay is not something to be expected from a story-driven game", I lost hope. Some people think that elevating one aspect of a video game and completely downplaying all the others is a good thing - it's not. What makes a good game is the overall balance of its constituent elements, favoring the ones that are specific to a given genre. Favoring, not "forgetting about the rest".

A video game is a game first and foremost, it's designed with an intention to be played. Similarly, a movie is filmed with an intention to be watched and a book is written with the intention to be read. When your product fails at its most basic, fundamental purpose, your produt is bad. A video game has to be carried by its gameplay, no matter how you look at it. You can have the best *insert element* you could possibly imagine, but if the game simply isn't fun and feels like a chore, people won't play it - they have other, more productive projects they could work on.

To elaborate on this point, these days we often see people complaining about "games that look gorgeous but play like crap/have a poor story/have lackluster features" - this is because one element of the overall product was given far too much attention, making other elements suffer. It's all about the balance, guys.

Unfortunately, I have never played the game, so I can't say either way if it's good or bad on the gameplay. You said it wasn't your cup of tea, but you didn't say it was shit.

 

[Foxi4]

Unfortunately, I have never played the game, so I can't say either way if it's good or bad on the gameplay. You said it wasn't your cup of tea, but you didn't say it was shit.

I'm just commenting on the overall aura of the thread. I don't think a video game can "fly" solely on story - that makes it a good story and a terrible video game. Again, Earthbound/Mother is not my cup of tea - I always wanted to try it out but I could never force myself to play something that's giving me all the signs that I won't like it... so I watched some gameplay footage instead and read the story, I didn't fancy either so I called it quits.

 

[grossaffe]

I'm just commenting on the overall aura of the thread. I don't think a video game can "fly" solely on story - that makes it a good story and a terrible video game. Again, Earthbound/Mother is not my cup of tea - I always wanted to try it out but I could never force myself to play something that's giving me all the signs that I won't like it... so I watched some gameplay footage instead and read the story which I didn't particularly fancy.

The Last Of Us seemed to do quite well relying just on story.

edit: Just playing Devil's advocate here. I didn't really care for Earthbound, personally, and the lack of gameplay in TLOU led me to the conclusion that it was a great movie but not much of a game.

 

[Foxi4]

The Last Of Us seemed to do quite well relying just on story.

That's false and you know it. The Last of Us "flies" because of its gorgeous visuals, great use of sound and lighting, solid (albeit not really inspired) story and fun gameplay - it's a good balance.

 

[grossaffe]

That's false and you know it. The Last of Us "flies" because of its gorgeous visuals, great use of sound and lighting, solid (albeit not really inspired) story and fun gameplay - it's a good balance.

I found the gameplay to be quite bland. Storytelling was great, but I was not a fan of the gameplay.

 

[Foxi4]

I found the gameplay to be quite bland. Story/Storytelling were great, but I was not a fan of the gameplay.

Alright, that's your opinion. Still, you have other elements that support the story such as graphics, aesthetics and sound which all build the correct tone and atmosphere, allowing the story to have a more profound impact on you. The exact same story wouldn't be nearly as gripping if the game didn't convey the urgency of your situation by showing you a destroyed, dilapidated landscape full of clicking noise - that noise alone built tension as you traversed buildings or underground passages. Again, there's more to games than just the story. The story was the meat in the sandwich, sure, but without all the other elements, you'd just be eating a slice of ham, not an actual sandwich.

 

[Yepi69]

I'm an EarthBound/Mother freak myself.

I love the series and everything related to them.

Can we just rename this "The Earthbound circlejerk thread" and have everyone orgasm and be done with it?

I swear we always get a really annoying Earthbound thread once every few months and every post is just filled with the sound of my continued sighing.

It beats having Gateway threads all the time.

 

[grossaffe]

Alright, that's your opinion. Still, you have other elements that support the story such as graphics, aesthetics and sound which all build the correct tone and atmosphere, allowing the story to have a more profound impact on you. The exact same story wouldn't be nearly as gripping if the game didn't convey the urgency of your situation by showing you a destroyed, dilapidated landscape full of clicking noise - that noise alone built tension as you traversed buildings or underground passages. Again, there's more to games than just the story.

I'm certainly not arguing against any of that, well except for the tension, because I never felt that immersed in the gameplay. Clickers especially annoyed me not because they were scary or hard, but because they cheated with their auto-kill animation that would fire off even sometimes when you were in the process of bashing their head in with a brick. If clickers were about, it just became a process of moving slowly, which didn't really feel tense to me. If I got caught, I have to suffer through the annoying auto-kill animation and then I'm sent back to just before he got me.

Everything else about the graphics, sound, atmosphere, etc. goes back to my initial statement that it was a great movie.

 

[Foxi4]

Everything else about the graphics, sound, atmosphere, etc. goes back to my initial statement that it was a great movie.

I can see how you'd say that if you didn't like the gameplay - that's precisely my point. A game with poor gameplay feels like less of a game and more something else... so yes, I agree fully.

But we're getting terribly off-topic, let's get back to Earthbound and how everybody/nobody has ever heard about it.

 

[grossaffe]

I can see how you'd say that if you didn't like the gameplay - that's precisely my point. A game with poor gameplay feels like less of a game and more something else... so yes, I agree fully.

But we're getting terribly off-topic, let's get back to Earthbound and how everybody/nobody has ever heard about it.

I was just trying to draw a parallel. As for Earthbound, I thought the story was overrated; maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I had played it when I was younger. Gameplay-wise it was like JRPGs of the era with it's own twist here and there. It didn't have random-encounters but rather you actually have to walk into them, much like Chrono Trigger, but with an added element where if you approach an enemy from behind, you get a in an extra attack at the start of the battle (and vice versa if he sneaks up on you). I didn't much care for the combat in it because there wasn't much you could do strategically to defeat tougher enemies, so there was a bit of grinding.

If the combat were a bit better, I could have seen myself enjoying the game, but it really started to wear on me by the end of the game.

 

[EarthBound 2]

According to Super Smash Bros. Direct there's no famous game EarthBound like Pokemon series are so.

All which starts MOTHER Saga is Shigesato Itoi's incident on Cinema when his 13 watched Military Policemen & Dismembered Beauty.Phil Sandhop wanted to announce EarthBound Zero as SpaceBound,EarthBound had finally its release on Europe,EarthBound 2/MOTHER 3 has first prototype on Superfamicom-canceled,second on N64DD(switched on N64 like Majora's Mask)as EarthBound 64-canceled,final port first phrase was suppose to have beta sprites was MOTHER 3 Beta in 2001,second attempt was at 2006 as final GBA game in 2006.Two years later Itoi said there will be no MOTHER 4.

 

[Foxi4]

According to Super Smash Bros. Direct there's no famous game EarthBound like Pokemon series are so.

All which starts MOTHER Saga is Shigesato Itoi's incident on Cinema when his 13 watched Military Policemen & Dismembered Beauty.Phil Sandhop wanted to announce EarthBound Zero as SpaceBound,EarthBound had finally its release on Europe,EarthBound 2/MOTHER 3 has first prototype on Superfamicom-canceled,second on N64DD(switched on N64 like Majora's Mask)as EarthBound 64-canceled,final port first phrase was suppose to have beta sprites was MOTHER 3 Beta in 2001,second attempt was at 2006 as final GBA game in 2006.Two years later Itoi said there will be no MOTHER 4.

Pretty sure that gave him the idea for the final boss in Earthbound, not for the whole series. As far as fame is concerned, everybody and their dog knows Pokemon, gamer or not. Earthbound/Mother? Not so much.

 

[Augusta]

An argument is not compelling if the delivery is lacking. Compelling defines the interest, and unless you are a very special kind of person, monotone is always boring.

Thank you for proving my point.

Even in your response, you don't seem to understand the argument or see the bigger picture. It seems that the majority of the people here don't even understand that games are put into categories because of how broad the term is today. The majority can't even accept this realization and as a result, are so arrogant that they use their preconceived idea of a game to bash others that don't fit their mold.

I could replace the name of a game like The Last of Us with Mother and the same arguments another poster used to defend TTLU would stick.

It truly is sad that people can't see things objectively.

Your response only gives credence to my entire post.
This whole post defines the problem with our society today.

 

[Gahars]

Thank you for proving my point.

Even in your response, you don't seem to understand the argument or see the bigger picture. It seems that the majority of the people here don't even understand that games are put into categories because of how broad the term is today. The majority can't even accept this realization and as a result, are so arrogant that they use their preconceived idea of a game to bash others that don't fit their mold.

I could replace the name of a game like The Last of Us with Mother and the same arguments another poster used to defend TTLU would stick.

It truly is sad that people can't see things objectively.

Your response only gives credence to my entire post.
This whole post defines the problem with our society today.

17 days and this is the best you can manage?

2/10, see me after class

 

[Jayro]

I played Earthbound on the SNES... and found it was nothing special. :|

The fandom for these games is as overhyped as ever.