Gaming Is Mother 3 worth playing if I haven't played the other two?

[concealed identi]

So I got a copy of Mother 3 from my friend who beat it and didn't need it anymore. I'm not really into RPGs, but I'm always willing to give them a try. The thing is, I don't really want to waste my time with this game if I'm not going to understand the story. Do they give a decent background of what happened in the previous two games? Do I even need to know what happened in the previous two games? Will I be completely lost?

 

[hdofu]

Has a finished English patch been released or are you fluent in Japanese? If not I'd say that would be a bigger deterrent then not knowing the story.

EDIT
Sorry didn't read your location, sleep deprivation is taking a toll on me

Anyway I read it has a completely different story on wiki not based on the characters from the other 2 games

 

[PizzaPasta]

I played through it without knowing Japanese. I didn't even need a guide for half of the game. It's really made with the non-Japanese speaker in mind (probably because Itoi knew that it wouldn't be localized outside of Japan).

It's a really good game and I am anxious for the translation to be finished. But I am also biased because I am a huge fan of the Mother series.

You should at least try it out.

 

[8BitWalugi]

Of course you should try it! But in order to understand SOME things, you should play Mother 1 and 2

 

[cupajoe]

You learn very little from Mother 1 and 2, mainly because the series isn't all that story intensive.

 

[Zanonymous]

I played through it without knowing Japanese. I didn't even need a guide for half of the game. It's really made with the non-Japanese speaker in mind (probably because Itoi knew that it wouldn't be localized outside of Japan).

Well said. I've beat it two times, one straight after my first playthrough. I feel weird believing it, but IMO it's one of the greatest games of all time. Not much language barrier, and if you get stuck, you can read tomato's spoiler free FAQ somewhere. This is one game you DON'T want to be spoiled for, though, keep that in mind, because you will regret it. Seriously..everything about it is good. Not too many battles, they're very fun too, the battle system is fast and fun, the boss battles are really fun, the graphics are really good, the length is not too long and perfect, and above all, it has one of, if not the, greatest videogame soundtracks of all time, because the unreleased songs in the canned N64 version and the newer songs combined to form a massive soundtrack.
The story is still very understandable too, and there's a translation FAQ too. This is something no one should miss out on. And here is the best review on the internet (4/4 on their site) if you still feel skeptical, but really, look into it or just get it. Just don't ignore it.

 

[ZPE]

You guys are forgetting the guy who posted this can read Japanese or at least he should be able to!

Anyway, you can play it without playing EB0 and EB. There are story overlaps though but again you won't need to know much about the series to appreciate the story.

 

[seedvt]

So I got a copy of Mother 3 from my friend who beat it and didn't need it anymore. I'm not really into RPGs, but I'm always willing to give them a try. The thing is, I don't really want to waste my time with this game if I'm not going to understand the story. Do they give a decent background of what happened in the previous two games? Do I even need to know what happened in the previous two games? Will I be completely lost?

The game is moreso visual and audio rather than large blocks of text.

You won't really need to play the other two games before trying this out, as there's only a few connections. There's one slightly larger one which would probably make more sense if you played EarthBound however.

 

[concealed identi]

Cool, thanks for the replies and opinions, guys. I'll definitely give it a shot, then. It's good to hear there aren't large amounts of text, as the combination of poorly written stories and massive amounts of text I don't care about is one of the main things that turns me off of RPGs in general. In this case, I just wanted to make sure I knew what was going on.

Thanks again!