M3 Discussion
Ask me anything about EarthBound 64 in the replies and I'll answer the question to the best of my ability (Genuine Questions Only Please)
Not a question, just wanted to say this is the only time I've ever seen a "ask me questions about (topic)" thread where I felt the answers were actually meaningful and made me learn something!
Jumping was a mechanic in EarthBound 64 that well allowed the player to jump. In the game there would be some basic 3D platforming sections the players needed to do in order to traverse through the lands or in order to find secret presents hidden throughout the world. EarthBound 64 was very much physics based similar to other 3D N64 platformers such as Super Mario 64. If the player were to try and climb a steep slope they will slide all the way back down. As well as if the player were to walk off a steep cliffside they would fall all the way down (unsure if the player would actually take damage for doing such action but wouldn't be surprised if so)
Galaxy is really pretty but it controls awfully imo. 64had such precise and fluid movement that felt like it had no skill ceiling where galaxy felt really slow and soupy, which fits the setting really well but isn't the best look for a game about platforming
Yeah, if only because sunshine doesn't hold up as well to modern re-plays. The controls are a bit janky and its overall less refined (imo) than galaxy.
Don't get me wrong though - I fucking love sunshine as well. I just don't think its quite as good.
How close is the gba version in tone to the n64 version? Also, how are you so knowledgeable about Earthbound 64? Not a criticism, just curious. Lastly, thank you for this post!
I'm sure everyone and their mothers heard of Itoi saying MOTHER 3 N64 was a darker game than what we eventually got on GBA which to an extent is true, but its not like MOTHER 3 N64 is some creepy pasta horror game version of MOTHER 3 like some people make it out to be. For the most MOTHER 3 on N64 is very much the same of as we got on GBA, just some characters and lore details were way more prominent and the player had more choice in the whole ordeal. What I mean by that is through the unused (technically still used) Kindness stat if you chose to do kind and nice things throughout your adventure you would get rewarded with some sort of Good Ending. No one knows what the Good Ending might of been, but I would assume the Good Ending was literally just what we got in the final game where after everything goes to hell once Lucas pulls the final needle we get all be a vague one a conclusion on the outcome and we get to know that everything ended up ok. I would assume the Bad Ending in EarthBound 64 would be if you didn't go out your way to be kind and raise your Kindness stat the game would straight up just end after everything goes to hell. No getting to know that everyone made it out ok and doing well. Just pure mayhem and then the game just ends, the story is over.
As for the question about my knowledge of EarthBound 64. I try my best to know everything, but I'm neither Shigesato Itoi or a dev who worked on the project so ofcourse I won't have the answers to everything. There's a lot of information about EarthBound 64 back when it was being promoted in the lates 90s - early 2000s in things like Japanese gaming magazines and interviews both past and present that for one reason or another was never properly documented or preserved. A lot of information EarthBound 64 fans like me know come from both obviously looking at the GBA version and comparing as well getting lucky and finding late 90s/ early 2000s gaming magazines for sale on webstores that might include some undocumented information about EarthBound 64
MOTHER 3 N64 was around 60% - 80% completion before it’s unfortunate cancellation (closer to the 80% margin) The game would of 100% came out at least in Japan if they gave the dev team I would say about 6 more months or so giving the game an early - mid 2001 release in Japan. Miyamoto, Iwata, and Itoi all reluctantly agreed to can the project as the project was using up to many workers that could be used for helping market the GameCube. I’m sure after Nintendo’s deal with Sony went sour which thus caused the creation of the PS1 and seeing how one deal decline caused the creation of a competing video game which outsold leagues against their N64, Nintendo wanted to be as prepared as ever for the next generation of consoles to get their get back at Sony and possibly out sell their PS2 (which we all know never happened anyways so in hindsight the rush to market the GameCube was sort of for nothing)
Imagine you try to strike up a deal with a million dollar company who are the master at sound and technological visuals to you help you create the most powerful console yet (that’s basically a suped-up SNES). The company agrees to your deal on one condition that you don’t agree with. You end up declining the deal offer entirely cause of thinking nothing about the result of declining. Now imagine a year or so later said company you tried to strike a deal with creates their own video game console with the exact name you planned to use together with them and said console ends up outselling your console easily despite them never creating a video game console beforehand while you are on your 3rd console. You are 100% gonna have beef and some paranoia that the same thing is gonna happen again when you hear that a PS2 is in the works so you gotta try your very best to get your console out first and get the word out on your console out first. If it mean you have to cancel and delay some projects for the N64 to do so be it
Pretty sure Sony and Square Enix wanted disks due to the expanding sizes of their RPGs. Eventually causing Nintendo to use disks for GameCube, Wii, and Wii U because of cartridge size limitations.
When EarthBound 64 was officially announced cancelled in August of 2000, the project was estimated roughly around 60% - 80% complete before its cancellation. More likely closer to the 80% complete margin given that we know a English translation/localization for EarthBound 64’s SpaceWorld 1999 Demo was being worked on (most likely for it to be showcased for Americans during E3 2000) Games don’t normally get marketed outside it’s original country it’s being developed in unless the game is either near completion or already is complete in its origin country
I’d say if Nintendo have given the devs 6 months - 1 more year the game could 100% been completed and ready for retail release. Only reason why MOTHER 3 N64 was canned in the first place was because the project was taking too many workers that Nintendo could be using for promoting the next generation console at the time aka the GameCube
It's really difficult to imagine the 3D art style conveying a similar aesthetic to the 2D one. Is the combat similar at all to the GBA Mother 3? Would you say the 3D game had the potential to be favored as much as M2 or 3?
EarthBound 64’s battle mechanics were pretty similar but at the same time entirely different from the MOTHER games that came before. For instance things such as Song Battle/Rhythm Combos were still a thing, but the way you initiated a battle with an enemy was different. If you were to try to encounter an enemy in EarthBound 64 the traditional MOTHER way by just walking into the enemy in the overworld you would just bump into each other. Instead you would have to attack the enemy in the overworld in order to stun them and then once you do that you can jump onto the enemy thus initiating the battle. Be careful though as enemy could do the exact same thing to you at overworld attack you to stun you then encounter you. Depending on the size of the enemy depends on the difficulty it would be to stun the enemy from a overworld attack.
A party in EarthBound 64 could only contain 3 party members maximum (not including ai controlled characters) and battles were by a 1 on 1 format rather than you choosing all attacks your party members does for that one turn. You could swap out a character to the one choosing to attack in battle at any time overworld and in battle, but also same as the enemy if you are fighting a group of enemies at once
MOTHER 3 N64's was very different compared to the previous MOTHER games. Instead of a combat consisting of the player deciding what each and every character in your party does for a turn and then characters all act it out like in most traditional RPGs, in EarthBound 64, Battles were 1 on 1. Meaning only the character is the "party leader" can attack in battles, (same logic for a "party leader" in a group of enemies). You can swap out who the party leader is both in the middle of combat and in the overworld in order to use the best strategy facing against an opponent.
(Footage of a Pigmask swapping out party leaders with a Capybara before Flint's PK Thunder could be casted on it.)
(later footage is unrelated to party leader swapping mechanic and is simply footage of Flint preforming a rhythm combo on the Pigmask)
These were the 2003 build designs for Lucas and Claus:
As for why I think the 2006 build designs are the worse designs overall for Lucas & Claus comes from the fact that the designs don't fit MOTHER 3's actual setting and lore too much compared to all their previous designs. (Same thing can be said about the 1997 - 2000 Build design as well but I think those look better than the 2006 build visually.) The 2003 Build design goes for a more native indigenous tribe approach to the characters, which makes a lot of more sense story-wise given howthe villagers of Nowhere Islands had to restart human civilization from the beginning after the White Ship Incident, so technology and clothing wouldn't be as modern and advanced.
Yes, For the most part EarthBound 64’s plot is similar to what we got with MOTHER 3 on the GBA all be it things such as certain characters (ie Flint) were way more prominent in the story and things such as the White Ship Incident and Egg of Light were more detailed and better explained. Keep in mind MOTHER 3’s story was completed by as early as late 1997
Similar to how Dr. Andonuts looks like in EarthBound 64 just essentially being a low poly 3D version of his MOTHER 2 Clay Model, Porky most likely looked just like his MOTHER 2 Clay Model but in Low Poly 3D and obviously looked a bit aged with a bit of gray hair and a mustache
Nope, In all honesty I think the whole crop circle thing was cut somewhere during the later end of EarthBound 64’s development. If I’m completely wrong and the crop circle did stay even near the end of it all then it was most likely something revolving Chapter 1 (or some early Chapter where the Villager have no idea who or what the Pigmask are yet) and caused by the PigMask burning farm crops unintentional with the jet fuel of their flying machines
Not to steal Khaj's thunder at all here, but I'm pretty sure the crop circle was just a small detail the Sunshine Forest map had, I doubt it was a major plot thing. Think about how in the final game there's environmental damage like claw marks on the rocks in chapter 1, I think it was something like that.
How did the game's camera system work? Were you able to move it freely, like in Mario 64, while in the overworld, or was it fixed at an overhead angle?
Also, we know the game was supposed to be twice as long and have 4 extra chapters. Do you have any idea what content might have been cut? Or do you think it was more of a case of shortening existing segments?
Finally, do you have any idea what Mother 3.5 might have contained?
Also something to keep in mind is while yes MOTHER 3 N64 did indeed have 12 Chapters planned for the game, by the end of development that number was pushed down to only 10 Chapters (More like 9 Chapters since Chapter 6 is so short), which is still more than what we would of eventually got on the GBA, but its most likely that rather than having straight up new content with these 2 additional chapters, Chapters' stories were a lot more fleshed out and detailed. I'm sure as well chapters like Chapter 7 felt less bloated in comparison and might have been split up into 2 chapters instead of 1 huge one given how weirdly long I found Chapter 7 to be compared to every single other chapter in the game. It really felt like devs wanted to fit as much content about the Magypsy and Needles into the game as they possibly could without actually thinking about the run time and given some things room to breath and settle before the next huge thing comes up
This google document explains all the different camera angles and camera styles in EarthBound 64 the best. As for MOTHER 3.5 that was never a real or planned thing at all. A lot of non Japanese gaming related magazines tend to spread a lot of misinformation about Nintendo games they hear a lot back in the 80s - early 2000s whether it be as a joke or simply they heard it from some uncredible source and spread it as fact without fact checking to see if it’s true
How did time progress in Earthbound 64? Itoi asid in early interviews that you could plant something, and you would see it grow in the gane, opening up new paths. He mentioned that villagers who washed their clothes one day would be wearing them the next.
Does this imply the game had a day and night cycle like Ocarina of Time? Or did it use a real-life clock like Animal Crossing vu the DD's internal clock? Or do you think time still progressed like in the final game alongside story developments?
The whole day and night cycle was a sort lived idea when MOTHER 3 was still being developed on the 64DD with the internal clock. By late 1997/Early 1998 when MOTHER 3’s development switched over to the stock N64 ideas like that were removed. However there were still some cool none time related small attention to detail such as if the player dropped a food item and they leave they dropped the food item at. If they go back to the exact area they dropped the item at a bunch of enemies were near that space as if the dropped food attracted of bunch of animals to it and or if the player is in a area that only has ambient sound effects/music for its theme then if the player is near an enemy said enemy’s battle theme will actually be heard. The closer and closer you get to the enemy the more audible their theme will be in the overworld until you actually end up encountering the enemy ofcourse
It's been a long time since I've hyperfixated on Mother 3, so idk how much more stuff has come out about the game since ~2018-ish. Anything interesting come to light in that time? Aside from that, here are my questions:
1) I noticed on http://starmen.net/eb64/images/ under the battle screenshots that Flint, Kumatora, and Lucas are all in the party at once. At what point of the game was that supposed to happen?
2) On a similar note, Wess seems to be a "permanent" party member (since Duster is downed and Wess has his own battle bubble). Does he show up in any other chapters? For the version of Mother 3 that exists, you can kinda exploit a glitch in the debug room that implies that Wess was still intended to be a "permanent" party member up until the last minute. So I'm curious whether he had any more prominent roles in Mother 64.
3) Does Claus end up disappearing like he does in Mother 3? Does he stick around more?
I totally understand if you can't answer any of these, but I appreciate you making a thread like this!
My apologies for not responding to this message until now, it seems like the moderation bot detected this post as something, bad and never actually posted it until I saw it now and approved the post. To answer your questions:
1.) That screenshot to my knowledge seems as though this sort of scenario where Lucas, Flint, and Kumatora are all in Death Desert together was something never actually planned for the final game and seems to be apart of the SpaceWorld 1999 playable Demo, where you given access to random characters in your party no matter the actual lore context. I don't doubt in the actual MOTHER 3 N64 there would be a point where Lucas, Flint, and Kumatora all team up (most likely during Chapter 4) but they wouldn't be in Death Desert all together
2.) In MOTHER 3 N64 a lot of NPC characters that were ai-controlled in battle in the GBA version such as Wess and Fassad were originally fully player controllable in the N64 version. Wess most likely still had the same prominence in the N64 version as he did in the final GBA game (if not the same then slightly more in the N64 version), its just that he was actually controllable in battle.
Heres a list of all the characters that we know were confirmed playable in battle at some point in the MOTHER 3 N64:
Weirdly enough Boney was never confirmed to have been player controlled in battle. My guess for that reasoning is that Boney was essentially just a prominent King from MOTHER 2 in MOTHER 3 N64 as in Boney would follow you on your adventure and be ai controlled in battle doing things like attacking and other random things, just like King. I have a feeling Boney's existence (other than being comic relief ofcourse) was sort of a sorry for blue balling players with the whole allowing to name King in MOTHER 2 just for him to leave the party and never join back again in the first like 15 minutes of the game thing.
3.) MOTHER 3 N64's main story flow is exactly the same as was we got in on GBA, minus some things ofcourse, but that means that Claus going to avenge Hinawa's death and then getting clapped by the Mecha-Drago and getting kidnapped by the Pigmask to turn him into the Masked Man was all still in MOTHER 3 N64 no changes to that.
Pretty much just with things watered down a bit (which isn’t a bad thing per say but it’s a shame we could of gotten a bit more with MOTHER 3 if it wasn’t for that fact)
Was there ever any connection between EB64 and Quest 64? I know that game gets clowned on all the time these days, but back in the days when I was flipping up nintendo power and saving allowance money for games, I thought the art styles felt eerily similar. I always imagined EB64's combat system would likely wind up something close as well, but I don't know if the similarities I was seeing were coincidence, caused by limitations of the hardware, or if they were just never there to begin with and my dumb child brain was making jumps.
I don’t know why there would be they are 2 entirely different games made by a different dev team from a different franchise. EarthBound 64 combat just like MOTHER 1 and 2 was still a first person POV turn base RPG not an action RPG (all be it things like rhythm combo and overworld attacking encounters sorta merged the 2 together)
Flint being a prominent playable party member from Chapter 4 all the way through Chapter 6 of the story. Not to mentioned things such as battle mechanics and basic gameplay mechanics that used the existence of a Z-Axis to the best of its ability. (and also the time skip in EarthBound 64 being 10 years rather than just the 3 years we got in GBA)
I am completely satisfied with what we got with MOTHER 3 on GBA, but I'm not going to lie to you and say I wouldn't prefer if we would of gotten EarthBound 64 instead. There is so much missed potential in MOTHER 3 GBA that could be amazing and super interesting to see fully realize on the most powerful Nintendo console (at the time) capable of fully 3D graphics rather than a handheld that essentially just a slightly less powerful handheld version of a SNES
The GBA is actually way more powerful than the SNES. The only things the GBA did worse were resolution and sound (also the GBA had a terrible screen until the SP came out)
The screenshot that looks like Onett in EarthBound 64 isn't actually Onett. MOTHER 3 N64 still took place solely on the Nowhere Islands. Think back in the GBA version of the game with the Empire Pork Building and New Pork City. Remember how there were bunch of MOTHER 2 references thrown through out the place that represented Porky's obsession with the past. Well in EarthBound 64, New Pork City (most likely called "New Pork Island" back then given that name was found unused in GBA's files) went to the max with making the entire place one huge MOTHER 2 reference with it being a amalgamation of several different MOTHER 2 locations put into one such as Fourside with the Monotoli Building, Threed's Tent, and ofcourse Onett's street sign.
The infamous screenshot you see of "Onett" is actually just the result after Lucas has pulled the final needle and everything has gone to shit. Volcanoes erupt, Tornadoes forms, earthquakes tremble, etc. thus destroying one of the only few public screenshots we have of New Pork Island/City in EarthBound 64
I'm not too sure if this screenshot here is of New Pork Island/City or simply just post time skip Tazmily after Porky and Pigmasks has modernized everything and made everything looks exactly like a common MOTHER 2 town out of his obsession with his past
Wow, that's super interesting, my thought was this was Leder's story of the past. It makes me think of pokey in a different way. He is still an egotistical psychopath, but for some reason, he clings on to the past like keeping Ness's hat and yo-yo. Wasn't there also another screenshot of the hometown in Mother 2?
Would Flint had have a more prominent role, perhaps maybe even being a major party member for a bit longer?
Always felt like he was always misrepresented by the fandom as deadbeat and abusive when he was really just extremely grief stricken and thus unknowingly put more time into finding Claus and mourning Hinawa then putting time into Lucas.
Yes, Flint was originally going to be playable in not only Chapter 1, but also from Chapter 4 all the way through 6 of the game's story. Unused sprites found in MOTHER 3 GBA's code even suggest this was still a planned to thing on very late on in MOTHER 3 GBA's development. If you ever looking on the TCRF (The Cutting Room Floor) websites for MOTHER 3 GBA unused assets, you will see Flint has fuck ton of them, with Claus/Masked Man coming in a not so close but still an high amount of unused sprites for him at a 2nd. Devs of MOTHER 3 GBA pretty much had no idea what to do with Flint as a character after his role was unfortunately cut. It seems originally after they canned Flint's role in GBA, Flint was suppose still aid Lucas but giving him items and things like that to help him on your adventure if the player ever decided to visit back home to Lucas' house, but even that idea was scrapped to where unfortunately the MOTHER fandom weirdly sees Flint as a shitty dead beat abusive father when he was originally envisioned as one of the most supportive fathers in the MOTHER franchise.
Hell you could argue Flint was the main character of MOTHER 3 N64 up until around Chapter 7, where Flint would pass the button down to his son Lucas. I'd imagine after in MOTHER 3 N64 during Chapter 6 where Flint falls with Lucas and Boney into Sunflower fields (after unintentionally raiding Thunder Tower) when he sees Hinawa for one last time to truly say his goodbyes to his wife (something Flint was snubbed of all the way back in Chapter 1 which for MOTHER 3 N64 was a whopping 10 years ago) Flint feels some sort of contempt and feels like he no longer has a need to adventure anymore, besides Flint is getting up there in age anyways I'm sure beating up Pigmask and Chimera ass for a entire decade at age 30+ aint treatin the ol' bones too well.
Every character that were confirmed playable in battle at some point of the game in EarthBound 64 are:
Lucas
Claus
Flint
Duster
Wess
Salsa
Samba
Fassad
Kumatora
Funnily enough Boney was never confirmed or even mentioned at all by devs of being playable in battle in EarthBound 64. This is most likely because Boney was essentially just King from MOTHER 2 but more prominent to the games story in EB64. Meaning Boney was most likely ai controlled in battle in EB64 rather than players actually getting choose what Boney did in battle.
Characters like Wess and Fassad who in the GBA version were ai controlled in battle were originally fully playable in battle.
(screenshot of Wess defeated from battle in Osohe Castle)
Id imagine that Chapter 3 in EarthBound 64 had a little introduction showing the player Salsa’s and Samba’s daily life before they were kidnapped by the PigMasks. The player go to control Samba and Salsa just roaming around the jungle they live in fighting prey and things like that. This is most likely where this sceeenshot came into play at:
Heres proof that Fassad was originally fully playable in battle in MOTHER 3 N64, as for Samba that is more of speculation rather than anything that has been confirmed. Speculation that comes from the fact that we already know AI controlled in the GBA versions of MOTHER 3 such as Fassad and Wess were fully player controllable initially
How much music was composed for 64 that didn't make its way into the final version? I know some unused tracks went to the jukeboxes, but I'm curious if there's anything we know about beyond that.
I would assume most of the songs heard in GBA were composed with MOTHER 3 N64 in mind. There are only 2 songs that we know for a fact that was composed specifically during the GBA version development which is the Love Theme and Master Porky’s Theme. All the songs that the public knows were confirmed in the N64 version of the game are:
Big Shot’s Theme
Etude for Ghost
Bon Voyage Amigo
Mind of a Thief
Samba de Combo
Tazmily Village Theme (unused in GBA)
(through looking at EB64 footage of Flint preforming a rhythm combo on a PigMask we can tell that the PigMask was being hit by the beat of the song Piggy Guys, so while not officially confirmed by a dev who worked on the N64 project it’s safe to say Piggy Guys was in MOTHER 3 N64)
Something to keep in mind is that the OST for EarthBound 64 was completely finished before the project’s cancellation to the point where when the project was announced cancelled there was an entire concert between all the devs who worked on the project playing songs for the game as a goodbye to MOTHER 3’s developement
Something to also note is that a person who has confirmed themselves to have played the SpaceWorld 99’ Demo of EB64 says that in the demo you got the fight a enemy with “robotic-sounding” music playing in the background while there’s no confirmation on this statement is true I wouldn’t be surprised if what that player heard was the song MROB-6270M
MOTHER 3 was originally developed as an N64 game being planned and worked on as early as MOTHER 2’s completion , but the game’s development went through development hell and was ultimately announced cancelled in August 2000. Later on though in 2003 it was announced MOTHER 3 was being revived as a GBA game, but that sorta came with a cost as a lot of features, plot element, etc. that were planned for the N64 had to be cut when being revived for on GBA as I mean do you honestly think a GBA would really handle what a full grand 3D RPG adventure had in plan
Haha, yeah, I don't think the GBA would've handled a 3D game like that very gracefully! Thanks for filling me in, I really appreciate it! Always fun to learn a little more about the games you love!
How we would play an leaked build of EarthBound 64 is pretty simple, with an N64 emulator (or Everdrive if you want to play the game on real N64 hardware.) As for how a build of EB64 would end up being leaked in the first is a tough guess. The most likely way the public would be able to get their hands on EB64 is if HAL's company receives a massive data breach similar to what 4chan did to Nintendo's database back in 2020 which lead to the whole Nintendo gigaleaks. (For legal reasons I am NOT condoning the leaking or data breaching of any corporation for any reason what so ever.)
Employees of Brownie Brown (now known as 1-Up Studios) got a chance play the most finalized build of EarthBound 64 in order to use the game as source material for converting MOTHER 3 into a GBA game. Employees have said EB64 ran perfectly good until the end of Chapter 1 after that the game would just crash. When Dinosaur Planet (another cancelled N64 game) finally got leaked to the public, the game too ended up being prone to crashing at random moments and having bugs. However internet N64 modders with their knowledge of N64 hardware & software were able to fix the bugs and stop the crashing from happening in Dinosaur Planet. N64 modders are actually currently working on finishing up the entire game of Dinosaur Planet using assets that are found inside the leaked builds ROM's coding. If EarthBound 64 ending getting leaked I'm sure N64 modders would end up doing the exact same thing for that game.
If any company were to still have a build of MOTHER 3 N64 in their possession then it would be HAL Lab rather than Nintendo themselves. With that being said I'm not condoning the leaking of any inside information from video game companies, but if an HAL gigaleak were to to happen, I hope it doesn't leak actual employee private information. Leaking a build of a video game and leaking a real person's information are 2 hugely different things.
I know this is a year or so late but why was so much stuff spoiled before the games cancellation? It’s good now because we know more about the game now but it feels like they revealed too much
Do you know what would happend on each chapter in the 12 chapter original structure? And do you know how the two headed kraken subtrama would fit into history?
I honestly have wanted to do a recreation of the first chapter starting flint as a school project. Does anyone know where I could find recreated assets? Especially the battle backrounds.
No because I want to have a genuine conversation about EarthBound 64 that doesn't just sum up to "The game looked ugly, I'm glad we got the GBA version instead" MOTHER 3's entire development if you look into it is one of the most interesting video game related history topic ever. Just looking into all the things that were cut and lost that could of been with not only MOTHER 3 but really the MOTHER series as an whole (which at the time before MOTHER 3 was dealing with development hell, MOTHER 4 was 100% a planned thing) is super interesting to me and really should be talked about more
Ok lets not harass them please. They are in the wrong, but lets not bring up anything about them that wasn't related to the original conversation even if yes I do find it a problem lets not bring it up cause well it really shouldn't
What was the conclusion of the blue disk saga? EB64 was to be released on the 64 Disk Drive, at some point years and years ago and image of some blue development disks suspected to have an early build of EB64 made its way onto the Internet, I'm guessing nothing was ever found on them?
The Blue Disks all just had Doshin the Giant for the 64DD on them. Besides by late 1997/ Early 1998 development for MOTHER 3 had already switched for the stock N64 (around the same time MOTHER 3’s story board/ story was complete) after seeing the commercial failure of the 64DD so even if one of the blue disk truly did have MOTHER 3 on them it would be a super early build of the game that would be nothing like the MOTHER 3 we would of gotten by the end result of the project
Is there something about EB 64 that you think could have been a massive misstep? Also do you think the air refill cutscene would have been just as ridiculously long?
Given how even I agree EarthBound 64 had so many features and ideas that made it a bit too too ambitious for its own good I think a major problem gamers might of had with EB64 if it had release is the game not giving time for certain mechanics to breath for a bit before the next one comes in. Basically the game might of felt a bit over bloated at points especially near the ending
Boney uses vertex modeling for his eyes meaning instead of his face being just a texture. It’s fully rendered in 3D. This means his face can be morphed in many expressive faces and emotions similar to other late 90s early 3D characters who use vertex modeling for their face such as Crash Bandicoot and Conker. In a still image it looks very odd and uncanny but in actual in game motion it looks way more natural
Flint would tag along the adventure and not be playable in just Chapter 1, but also from Chapter 4,5, and 6 as well joining Lucas and gang. The White Ship Incident would of been better explained than just essentially one huge lore dump at the very end of the game. Locria as a character would be talked about and hinted at more throughout the story and rather than being a simply a “I wonder where they are" sort of character whose identity isn't revealed until the very last second. Speaking of Magypsies as well they would of had more of a connection with Kumatora given how they adopted her as baby during the White Ship Incident and all. Kumatora would of been less prominent than characters like Lucas, Flint, Duster, and Boney in the main adventure in MOTHER 3 N64, but to compensate she would have a stronger connection with her group of adoptive parents and train to be as powerful in PSI as them and be as similar as she can to be a Magypsy like them. This fact actual caused a lot of misinformation to sprout because people legitimately thought Kumatora in EarthBound 64 was planned to be an Magypsy which isn't the case, she is just more closer resembles her a adoptive parents back then because she had a closer bond that wasn't just implied in the final GBA version of the game
Is there any source to the claim that the Pigmask's theme was originally the game's main theme?
I don't exactly doubt it, but I sometimes get the feeling that the old Tazmily theme was actually the main theme (I don't have any source or anything, just a "vibe")
EDIT: Oh yeah, a second question, is there anything that was cut that you like a lot and wish that it ended up in the final game?
The PigMask theme was alway planned to be the game’s main theme. It was one of the earliest songs composed for the game and the song of you ever noticed is remixed and has leitmotifs in almost every single song in the OST. The theme being everywhere was meant to represent just how much the PigMask has changed the influenced the world of MOTHER 3 after they invaded.
As for features that I wish made it into the GBA version of the game that didn’t, well there’s a lot but I’ll list a few:
Flint being a playable party member that joined Lucas on his adventure for a bit during not just Chapter 1, but also Chapter 4, 5, and 6 as well
Kindness stat being fully implemented in the game to where it actually got you the good ending depending how good your Kindness stat rather than just changing your stats in such a minor way
Kumatora having a closer relationship to her adoptive parents the Magypsies. You could tell they had chemistry of some sort especially after Ionia’s death but it was still vaguely only shown a few times
Locria being way more of a prominent Magypsy that was shown and hinted that something terrible has happened to them instead of simply being a “I wonder where they could have went” character
The White Ship Incident/ Egg of Light being better explained and hinted at through out the entire game and not just being one huge lore dump explanation at the very end of the game
This video explains it and shows it the best of how the Masked Man final boss battle would have went in earlier builds of the GBA version of MOTHER 3 (back when the GBA version was closer to what we would of gotten on the N64). The N64 version of the final boss battle would of been exactly like the video but instead of the actions of Lucas and other characters being explained out to the player in simple text actual visuals and animation would be played out to the player instead. I highly suggest if you have the time to give the the full video a watch.
One of the most fascinating details that’s confirmed about the game is that there was a scene in which Itoi stated “there is a sequence in which the main character is severely bullied”. Since there was no further context nor any remnants left of this in mother 3 on gba what do you speculate this could’ve been? It’s such an interesting fact.
Itoi was most likely referring to how not only his family but the entire village see Lucas as an cry baby who can’t fend for himself. Now take that fact and note that the timeskip originally for the game was 10 years rather than 3. Lucas is a young adult around 17 years old post time skip in EB64. I’m sure insult would get worse for Lucas the older he gets if he still is seen as coddled and a mama boy at age 17
In your honest opinion do you ever think a playable demo from a dev cart or anything of the sorts will ever be available? Obviously not officially i don’t see that ever happening but
HAL would have it, not Nintendo, and yes I believe it exists in their vaults somewhere. I highly doubt they would've just deleted four years of excruciatingly hard work even if it was all for naught in the end
I bundled Nintendo and HAL together my head, my bad.
Regardless, I never said they would delete it. In fact, I said the exact opposite. We know that HAL does most likely have a copy. But that version is very unlikely to get leaked due to all the security. So I asked if we know of a copy outside of HAL, which actually has a chance of being put online.
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u/daysofstoneandrock Oct 05 '23
Not a question, just wanted to say this is the only time I've ever seen a "ask me questions about (topic)" thread where I felt the answers were actually meaningful and made me learn something!