“They all work at different ages, too. You can play MOTHER [1] when you’re young, MOTHER 2 is better when you know a bit more about the world, and then MOTHER 3 is best played when you’re older.”
– Shigesato Itoi¹⁾

MOTHER, localized as EarthBound, is a series of role-playing games by Shigesato Itoi that began in 1989 and concluded in 2006. The series was published by Nintendo who wasn't able to bring the full series out of Japan due to localization issues and poor release timing.

The series consists of three games: MOTHER (1989), MOTHER 2 (1994), and MOTHER 3 (2003). There's also the unique 2-in-1 remake bundle, MOTHER 1+2 (2003), that was made to accompany MOTHER 3.

MOTHER, also known as MOTHER 1, EarthBound Zero, or EarthBound Beginnings, follows a young boy traveling across “America” in search for eight melodies to cure Queen Mary's amnesia and reveal what's attacking their world. When they accomplish this, the Queen reveals herself as his great-grandmother, Maria, and said phenomenon is caused by an alien that she raised with her husband, George.

The boy and his friends then travel up Holy Loly Mountain to find George's tombstone, the missing parents, and an alien named Gyiyg, who is enraged that George studied his PSI powers. The alien invites the boy aboard his ship, but the boy refuses and retaliates by singing the melody, invoking nostalgic tears that forces Gyiyg to retreat. Peace is restored, though the boy gets one final phone call.

MOTHER 2: Gyiyg Strikes Back, or EarthBound: The War Against Giygas, starts off with a time-traveling insect in a meteorite informing Ness that he was prophesied to stop Gyiyg from plummeting their world into darkness with wisdom, courage, and friendship, then tells him to gather eight melodies found in his sanctuary locations across “Eagleland” using the sound stone. Along the way, he is joined by three allies.

MOTHER 3 tells the story of a happy family on an idyllic island being torn apart after a strange, pig-themed organization suddenly appears. A thief gets tasked with safeguarding the Egg of Light (Hummingbird Egg), then a peddler who works for the organization abuses a monkey into doing slave labor until our protagonists realize that something's wrong here. From there, we are thrown into a three-year time skip.

• MOTHER 1: This was fully translated and named “Earth Bound”, but it was shelved indefinitely as the NES was phased out for the SNES. However, a prototype ROM dubbed “EarthBound Zero” did make its way onto the internet.²⁾³⁾ In 2015, MOTHER was finally released for the Virtual Console where it was dubbed EarthBound Beginnings⁴⁾⁵⁾ as a proper introduction to the series.⁶⁾
• MOTHER 2: This was fully translated and released in June 1995 as “EarthBound” to avoid numbering confusion, but it suffered as retro graphics and role-playing games weren't popular at the time.⁷⁾⁸⁾ Nintendo spent $2,000,000 on marketing, but it was deemed a failure, and was never localized outside of the United States.⁹⁾ It did show up on Virtual Console in June 2013.¹⁰⁾
• MOTHER 1+2: This entry is generally skipped or neglected for whatever reason, probably since the previous two games were already readily available on the internet, so nobody really asked.
• MOTHER 3: Reggie Fils-Aimé, the president of Nintendo of America at the time, stated no localization plans¹¹⁾ since it wasn't a “smart business approach”¹²⁾ and that was that.¹³⁾¹⁴⁾ It didn't help that the GBA was being phased out too. Today, we have a mention¹⁵⁾ and an E3 joke,¹⁶⁾¹⁷⁾ but nothing ever came out of it.¹⁸⁾¹⁹⁾ Doug Bowser, the current president, has yet to comment.

• MOTHER 3: There had been an interest in translating MOTHER 3,²⁰⁾²¹⁾ so a couple of MOTHER fans got together and released an unofficial translation on October 1, 2008.²²⁾
• MOTHER 1+2: An easily accessible, re-translated version of MOTHER 1 was released on April 29, 2011,²³⁾ but the MOTHER 2 side was too complex and left with a simple UI translation.²⁴⁾ Despite this, people were interested in translating the MOTHER 2 side, and the most hopeful ongoing translation is the "VWF Edition" which now has its own Github page.

“People who have played Mother 2 are the ones playing Mother.”
– Shigesato Itoi²⁵⁾

It's been repeatedly mentioned that the MOTHER series has an international cult following who believe that MOTHER 2 and MOTHER 3 are masterpieces, but where did they come from? EarthBound flopped, so it's more likely that they discovered it through the Super Smash Bros. series or very early EarthBound ending spoiler memes (e.g. “X Means Business”,²⁶⁾ “You Cannot Grasp the True Form of Giygas' Attack”).

• MOTHER was innovative for its time since it was one of the few role-playing games which went with a modern setting, rather than being yet another forgettable 1980s medieval fantasy retread.²⁷⁾
  • While urban fantasy has remained a niche, it has led to an unfortunate trend of video game journalists who label such games as “inspired by EarthBound”, regardless of whether this is true or not. In response, some indie developers have coined “Motherlike” if they wish to confirm.²⁸⁾
• The two major criticisms about MOTHER is the insane encounter rate and how it tends to be a bit too cryptic at times, partially due to a design philosophy where it was meant to challenge the player.
  • For instance, trying to leave Magicant without a guide requires you to infer that the wells exist east of town, inspect the 39 wells, find the correct path (→,←,←,→), traverse the dungeon, solve the Forgotten Man's riddle (no, yes), and try not to use the Onyx Hook that sends you back to Magicant before exiting, though one may be forced to consider with the insane encounter rate.
    • This is worse with the original Famicom version in Japanese since the dungeon is twice as large and answering the Forgotten Man incorrectly will send you all the way back to Magicant.
  • I don't recommend using the MOTHER: 25th Anniversary Edition hack as a solution since it turns the encounter rate so comically low, that looking for enemies becomes a grind of its own, and many people overlook the subtle overworld changes from Ninten's House to the Zoo.²⁹⁾
• “Gyiyg” (ギーグ, Gīgu) is the official romanization seen in the MOTHER 2 intro,³⁰⁾ though it ended up being changed to “Giegue” in MOTHER's localization and “Giygas” in MOTHER 2's localization.
  • Personally, I'm partial to “Giegue” since its a very accurate respelling, unlike “Giygas” which just made everyone misread it as “guy gas” (ガイギャス)³¹⁾ and not “geegus” (ギーグス).³²⁾
  • While this is common knowledge now, Gyiyg's form in MOTHER 2 is said to be inspired by Itoi's childhood trauma of accidentally watching a lovemaking scene in Kenpei to Barabara Shibijin,³³⁾ which he misinterpreted as a rape³⁴⁾ but does add it to the themes of fear and innocence.³⁵⁾
    • The film is a dramatization of Keisuke Kosaka's novel, Notautsu Kempei,³⁶⁾ featuring him recalling an incident during his time as a Kempei within Occupied Manchuria in 1937, where they discovered that a dismembered, five-month pregnant woman had been dumped into the 4th Infantry Regiment's well, which they attempt to solve the mystery of.
• The etymology of “Ranboob” (ランブーブ, Ranbūbu) is unclear. Some believe that it could stem from either orchid (蘭, ran), ranunculus (ラナンキュラス), or rambutan (ランブータン).
• “My Secret Life” (我が秘密の生涯, Wagahimitsu no Shōgai) is an old magazine that can be discovered in the $7500 Beak Point vacation home in MOTHER 2 and the Chimera Laboratory in MOTHER 3.
  • By the way, it has no relation to a certain anonymous pornographic memoir of the same name.
  • The magazine is nearly identical in Japanese and the English localization, even including the “demon child” (オニの子, oni no ko) at the end, though Kōshū Kaidō at “80km/h” (≈50mph) was localized as Jersey Turnpike at “80mph” (≈130km/h), slightly speeding now.
• During the development of MOTHER 3 on the Nintendo 64, it had three working subtitles: “Chimera Forest” (キマイラの森, Kimaira no Mori), “Forest of Strange Creatures” (奇怪生物の森, Kikai Seibutsu no Mori), and “Fall of the Pig King” (豚王の最期, Buta-ō no Saigo) before its formal cancellation.
• Regarding the MOTHER 1+2 remake, there are a number of changes to comment on:
  • There's a small oversight in MOTHER where you can now go south from the damaged bridge near Santa Claus Station (Union Station), but doing so will lead you to a very long dead end.
  • For some reason, the MOTHER 2 soundtrack became mono sound, despite stereo sound being available with headphones. The exception to this is “Belch's Base” (ゲップーの秘密基地).
  • The “Bracelet of Kings” (おうじゃのうでわ, Ōja no Udewa) item, localized as the “Bracer of Kings”, got pushed from the sixth “Pink Cloud” dungeon to the seventh “Lumine Hall” dungeon.
  • Personally, I think MOTHER 1+2 is a perfectly fine way to experience MOTHER and MOTHER 2, but I do have a high tolerance and can appreciate the work that goes into a port. If you're a person who complains about the version's music or people who play this version first: I don't like you.
• Itoi has no plans for a MOTHER 4 entry^37)38)39)40) since video games weren't his main profession and that the series would lose its charm if it had more installments.⁴¹⁾⁴²⁾

• Pokémon - From the developers of MOTHER 2.⁴³⁾

• MOTHER on Itoi's website - The official website, sorta.
• WikiBound - The English fan wiki.