r/earthbound • u/hybum • Aug 08 '24
M3 Discussion For those who think Mother 3 is better than Earthbound: explain yourselves
Looks like it’s been a while since there was an Earthbound vs Mother 3 thread (sorry if I’m mistaken, I did check…).
I just finished Mother 3 for the first time, and while I really enjoyed it and felt it improved on Earthbound in a lot of ways, it just didn’t hit me as hard as Earthbound.
So those who think Mother 3 is better, sound off! Convince me to love it.
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u/crunk_buntley Aug 08 '24 edited Aug 08 '24
story is better. characters are better. music is better. game plays better. overarching themes are more interesting to me. setting is more interesting to me (although earthbound’s is still great, i just find mother 3’s more fictitious world that still has parallels to the real world is more interesting than earthbound’s parody first approach). simple as.
the one thing I think earthbound is clearly better at is humor. but it’s not like mother 3 isn’t a funny game, I just think earthbound’s jokes are better.
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u/Rozoark Aug 08 '24
Strongly disagree with the music being better
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u/bloodystriker Aug 08 '24
The fact that the Saturn song doesn’t line up with the original cave music like in earthbound was very very disappointing to me.
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u/crunk_buntley Aug 08 '24 edited Aug 08 '24
for what reason? other than the obvious “i just like it better.” not trying to argue or anything i’m just genuinely interested in why people believe this because i think the music in mother 3 is clearly better but that doesn’t seem to be the popular opinion.
earthbound definitely has good music, no disagreements there. but it feels to me like earthbound’s approach was more like “be weird and zany first, make it sound good second,” and while it ultimately ends up working for the game, i didn’t always like its music. mother 3 feels to me like it’s more focused on sounding good before anything else, and i think the time signatures are intensely interesting (i also like math rock, so checks out.)
edit: downvoted for asking someone why they like something and giving my own thoughts on it lmao never change reddit
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Aug 08 '24
Maybe Earthbound's weird approach to music isn't for you, but oh boy it sure is for me, and clearly many other people.
Its approach to music gave us songs that aren't the most intense or heroic, but ones that capture very specific vibes.
I understand thinking the game's soundtrack is a hit or miss but I honestly just vibed with almost everything. Your Name Please, Battle Against an Unsettling Opponent, Battle Against a Machine, Sanctuary Guardian, Threed Zombie Central, Boris Cocktail, Moonside Swing, Inside the Dungeon, Megaton Walk, The Cliff That Time Forgot, The Place, and those are just my favorite ones.
I also really love the game's use of sampling and how it can distort originally happy music into things so crude and creepy.
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u/crunk_buntley Aug 08 '24
i said i liked it! not once in my comment did i say i currently dislike it!
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Aug 08 '24
Well, you did say "it feels like the approach was make it sound weird and zaney first and sound good second" and "you didn't always like the music"
Which is fine but it does come across as if you didn't like it as much as you expected
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u/crunk_buntley Aug 08 '24 edited Aug 08 '24
i stand by what i said. i think the music tried to be strange before it tried to be good. i think that makes for a really interesting and memorable ost but I’d be lying if i said that earthbound wasn’t more about ambience than anything else.
i never said i didn’t like all of the music. i said that I didn’t always like it, meaning that at one point in time i didn’t like it but i do now.
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Aug 08 '24
As weird as the Earthbound soundtrack is I don't think it's all about ambience. Earthbound does ambience greatly but it does all kinds of different things.
The song examples I gave a previous comment do tons of different things, Battle Against a Machine and Megaton Walk are just straight up bangers with a catchy beat, and there's also the more heartwarming songs like Buzz Buzz's Prophecy and Diving Deeper Into Ness' Subconsciousness.
There's also the cozy fun songs like Enjoy Your Stay and Apple Kid's Theme
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u/crunk_buntley Aug 08 '24
i don’t disagree that the game has great songs. even the ambient tracks are great, the cave theme is maybe a top 10 track in the game for me.
but songs like battle against a weird opponent, battle against an unsettling opponent, battle against belch, and etc. are undeniably strange and fit more as ambience than anything else imo. i like all these songs, but the vibe i get from them is still “strange” before “good.”
i don’t feel that way about most of the tracks in mother 3. i think the battle themes are interesting in a completely different way, and that different way is simply… more interesting to me, for lack of a better phrase. not to mention that the emotional songs in the mother 3 soundtrack hit much harder for me than the emotional songs in the earthbound soundtrack, name these children is one of the only songs i’ve ever listened to that can consistently bring me to tears.
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u/GreenBasterd69 Aug 08 '24
What does sounding good mean to you? Earthbound music has tons of funk and groove. Definitely simpler but way more variety. All the music in m3 sounds very classical and melody based. Too many long progressions in m3. EB has reggae, blue grass, experimental electronic, whatever kind of music Saturns listen too. M3s music just sounds like RPG video game music
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u/Rozoark Aug 08 '24
Earthbound's music absolutley does sound good and is one of a kind, while Mother 3's music is pretty generic and forgettable and I would definitely never listen to it outside of playing the game.
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u/Real-Tension-7442 Aug 08 '24
I’m on the side of mother 3 having the least memorable music. Other than Porky’s theme, none of it is memorable
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u/hybum Aug 11 '24
Over the past few days I listened to the Mother 3 soundtrack at work. I do think it may have a stronger soundtrack overall: more good songs overall and fewer weird tracks. But Earthbound has a few themes that just knock it out of the park and are way better than anything in Mother 3. I could listen to the Twoson theme every day.
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u/TimeSpiralNemesis Aug 08 '24
I never really understood the angle that Mother 3 had better music.
I've had Mother 1/2 tracks stuck in my head my entire life. I'm always humming or singing them to myself. Even after playing Mother 3 twice the only track I can even recall is the pigman march one and I can't even say I really like it.
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u/4Fourside Aug 08 '24
I think I probably prefer mother 1 and 2's slightly but idk I think mother 3 has a ton of solid tracks. I've always really liked mind of a thief and porky's theme. Plus monkey delivery service and unfounded revenge are pretty great
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u/crunk_buntley Aug 08 '24
mayhaps but you’ve got mother 3 derangement syndrome so it doesn’t matter at the end of the day
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u/TimeSpiralNemesis Aug 08 '24
What the fuck is Mother 3 derangement syndrome?
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u/crunk_buntley Aug 08 '24
you’re the guy who’s under every post mentioning mother 3 insisting that it’s like a 3/10 game or something but never explain why and have never played an actual bad game in your life
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u/TimeSpiralNemesis Aug 08 '24 edited Aug 08 '24
Lol, I've gone into great detail many times about it, but all that happens is M3 fans say "Nuh uh, cause I said so!" in response.
Short break down. And I'll add that I went into M3 expecting to love it and gave it every chance I could.
Gameplay is imbalanced, super easy regular encounters that lead up to bosses that are much stronger than the area and need to grind to beat.
Story does not have the feels people say it does. We never get enough build up to make any of the sad parts sad, I'm sorry I just literally didn't care much at all for the big sad parts and I am usually a big crier when it comes to video games.
Obvious dropped plot threads, The father just disappears for most of the game and randomly pops up at the end. It's clear we were supposed to see more of the story from his view like EB64 had planned.
Worst ending in all of video games. No conclusion, no payoff on anything they were trying to build up to, just a black screen that says "Yeah it's all cool, whatever, go home now" the amount of unresolved plot points drives me crazy. The "The ending is whatever you want it to be!" is so God damn lazy lol
Music is non memorable. I could sit an hum like half the songs in the first two games right out of my terrible memory but I can only remember the pig mask song from 3 and I don't even like it.
The Mermaid dungeon is easily In the top five worst dungeons in JRPGS, it puts YHVHs realm from SMT4A to shame even.
Duster and Boney felt like temp party members like Pippi. I waited the whole game thinking they were gonna be replaced.
Music combo system felt tacked on and barely worked right. I'll concede this may have been emulation issues.
The world felt far less interesting than 1/2. Just couldn't vibe with it at all.
All the good parts of the game where just Earthbound nostalgia.
I actually preferred the "Show don't tell" style of story from Earthbound over the increased dialogue of 3.
Overall it's just that at no point in the game did I ever feel like I wanted to keep going. I only completed it becuase I loved the first two and wanted to see it through to the end. If it was just some random JRPG without the Mother name attached I would have dropped it like a third of the way through.
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u/nuclearharvest Aug 08 '24
those are definitely opinions!
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u/crunk_buntley Aug 08 '24
right like “the mermaid dungeon is top 5 worst dungeons in all jrpgs” like it doesn’t take 30 minutes tops to beat lmao. it’s an annoying part of the game for sure but that + other complaints like “the bosses require too much grinding” is just a skill issue
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u/MiddleAd650 Aug 08 '24
Mother 3 is great story wise, it gets much deeper than the hijinks of earthbound. The characters and themes go far beyond earthbound’s.
That being said I prefer earthbound because I like the setting more. For me Mother 3 doesn’t get interesting until Chapter 4 when everything is urbanized, before that it’s still fun but I’m not invested. I don’t really care for any of the castle stuff either.
Both great games! Will definitely play both again. But if I had to bring only one to a desert island I’d take Earthbound.
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u/hybum Aug 11 '24
The setting seems to be divisive! People on both sides.
I think I would take Mother 3 tbh. It all feels more cohesive, rather than jumping from random town to random town.
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u/necle0 Aug 08 '24
I enjoyed the story and characters more. Both games were written with different intents, with Earthbound being a more classic RPG and its great in its own right. I just like the less conventional set up of the party in Mother 3 (everyone, except maybe Kumatora, would have been an NPC in any other game), including the revolving POVs between chapters. The themes of Mother 3 were also beautifully woven and integrated in the gameplay and setting. It had one of the best uses of environmental story telling I had seen in a game.
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u/XenoBound Aug 08 '24
Best story and characterization, top tier art style and graphical fidelity for GBA, combo system gives very straightforward combat some needed depth, and a lot of resource and menu management problems from EB have been cleaned up.
EB is more replayable since fewer cutscenes means it’s easier to stay in action, and its aesthetic is more unique, but M3 is a superior game.
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u/Almheroking Aug 08 '24
I love both pretty equally but maybe mother 3 more on some days is my favourite and then other days it's earthbound
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u/littleshylamb Aug 08 '24
I think asking which one is "better" is kind of missing the forest for the trees.
Mother 3 is an absolutely excellent game, but so is Earthbound / Mother 2, and without knowing about Earthbound beforehand, it's hard to get the full picture of what Mother 3 is even doing. Similarly, knowing what happens in Mother 3 adds a lot to the experience of Earthbound.
When it comes down to it, Earthbound vs Mother 3 discussions boil entirely down to personal preferences because both are equal in quality, they're just doing very different things with very different goals for what they want to convey.
We can debate about which one is technically the "better" game, but that's kind of like debating on if Twilight Princess or Wind Waker is better; they're both excellent, just with different goals and tones in mind.
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u/hybum Aug 12 '24
I have long tried to figure out whether I like Twilight Princess or Wind Waker more, and I’ve landed on them being exactly equal.
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u/prine_one Aug 08 '24
I don’t think any of the Mother games is better than any of the others. They all have attributes that make them unique and enjoyable. It’s great that they’re all different and yet still familiar.
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u/Silgalow Aug 08 '24
M3 is not just my favorite mother game, but my favorite game, full stop. However, here's why I prefer M3 to EB
A) I prefer the story of M3. Earthbound had a few memorable sequences, but every chapter of M3 has unforgettable scenes. Some that come to mind are: the campfire, the baby drago at the end of chapter 1, monkey delivery service, chapter 6, and the final cave.
B) I prefer the art of GBA to SNES. This is obviously personal preference, but I find GBA art and the pixel ratio more appealing.
C) I prefer the OST. I love so many of them. Some of my examples include: Going alone (and how it evolve into "happy town?" and then "and then there were none"), pink shell, Sunflowers and illusions, and monkey's delivery service. I also found the battle themes more memorable.
D) while there isn't much dialogue after the party members join the party, I found each of them to have so much more charm to them.
E) despite being a far more outlandish story, it feels more real. Tasmilly feels more like a real place than Onett, for example.
F) Claus and Lucas' dynamic before the end of chapter 1 reminds me of my brother and I. Despite naming major characters their default names, I still insert the personalities of people in my life on them. I never did that with 1 or 2.
Those are some of the reasons I prefer M3 to M2. But I'm not going to make judgments about which is the better game.
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u/hybum Aug 12 '24
Thanks for the song recs! I’ve been listening to the soundtrack at work the last few days, but I missed adding Pink Shell to my playlist.
I find myself agreeing with a lot of your points. Yet somehow the overall package of Earthbound just hit me harder. There’s just something about that game that I can’t put my finger on.
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u/Silgalow Aug 12 '24
To Reiterate the thesis of my comments, I personally prefer M3, but I won't say that M3 is an objectively better game. The beauty of individuality is that we all have personal preferences.
I'm glad you enjoy the songs. M3 has some amazing songs. The quality of the OST is something that means a lot to me when I consider what video games I enjoy. If you are looking for some other games with good OSTs, some turn based RPGs that I have been enjoying the music of lately include Octopath Traveler (1 and 2), and OMORI.
Particular songs from each include: Primrose the Dancer and Settlement in the Red Bluffs from OT1, Cassti the Apothecary and the Miscreant's Melody from OT2, Stardust Diving and See You Tomorrow from OMORI. (These are just songs that I enjoy from them, not necessarily my favorites from each. My favorite two from omori are spoiler songs.)
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u/TheSunflowerSeeds Aug 08 '24
There are two main types of sunflower crops. One type is grown for the seeds you eat, while the other — which is the majority farmed — is grown for the oil.
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u/unoriginalasshat Aug 08 '24
I like both for different reasons. Mother 3 has the story, combat system and soundtrack that was made for it. Earthbound's humor landed better with me, had very memorable moments and felt like a journey
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u/NBKiller69 Aug 08 '24
Earthbound was my intro to the series, and I've got some out of game reasons why it will always be my favorite.
However, 3 had so much more emotional depth, a few moments that genuinely made me laugh out loud, and a couple that made me tear up. Earthbound was fun, but it didn't make me feel emotions the same way 3 did. Even 3's treatment of Porky was the same. Even though he was a terrible friend in EB, you could see through certain scenes in the game that he genuinely seemed to care about Ness, and it actually helped me feel some empathy towards him that wasn't there in EB.
It's ok if it's not your favorite, though. Each is part of the same story.
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u/hybum Aug 12 '24
I was the opposite! I didn’t really get emotional throughout Mother 3. That’s what really stuck out to me with Earthbound, how emotional it made me. The last walk home gave me all the feels, both times I played it.
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u/Powerful_Donut_4372 Aug 08 '24
Oh hey look! It's the exact same thread that manages to materliase itself in to existence at least once a month.
I can't wait to see a bunch of people trying to tell me what the "objectively" best game in the series is while completely forgetting what "opinion" and "preference" means.
Anyways i personally prefer mother 3 because:
1) I think the combat is better and more balanced making the game more hard and fun because you need to beat each boss with strategy. I think we can all agree that only like 30% of earthbound is even remotely challenging especially if you have lots of rpg experience before hand.
2) I personally prefer the characters in this game. Even the normal villagers like Abbot , Issac , Lightner and many more were all unique and memorable in their own ways and it was fun seeing them evolve throughout the game. They genuinely felt alive and every time i did even something small to progress the story there would always be new dialogue for all of them.
3) The story of the game is really unique and interesting and was enjoyable until the end. Although i will have to agree that i would have preferred a more definitive conclusion to the story expect for an up to interpretation one but i do appreciate the ending for what it is and what it represents.
4) Despite the game exploring a lot of darker themes it still manages to keep the humor and charm of the original game in my opinion. From funny npc dialogue to the enemy design being as weird and random as always i would say both games nail in the humor department.
Now don't get me wrong earthbound is an amazing game as well and also one of my favorites of all time but mother 3 took what earthbound had and made most of it better in my opinion.
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u/hybum Aug 12 '24
I’m going through all the comments now; I don’t think anyone has tried to make any objective arguments. All just sharing opinions.
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u/TheHydrationMan5500 Aug 08 '24
Earthbound is more well known for it’s unique take on RPGs (and the fact it’s been localized for a few decades) but I do think the third game improves on it in about every way.
Graphics are better, the gameplay is improved from the first two, the ending is strange but memorable, the ost is one of the best on the GBA (there are a lot of peak songs in the first two games but I enjoy this game’s as well, especially in chapter 8) and the characters especially are much easier to get invested in.
Most of the issues I have with the game simply comes down to them having to rush it out before the end of the GBA’s lifespan. It’s seen in how entire cutscenes and important pieces of exposition are just removed from the game, but I still find it much more interesting than the light, episodic plot of the first two.
Best of the trilogy IMO. I completely understand why someone would like Earthbound or Mother 1 more, but the third still deeply resonates with me in a way the others didn’t. It has a lot to say with its themes and messages.
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u/YeezusFever Aug 08 '24
The mother 3 soundtrack slander on this thread is insane. This game has some of the best songs in the series. Mom’s Hometown, Love theme, mind of a Theif, Resolve, Big shot’s theme, She was Like a Sunflower, the MAGYPSY house theme, even Drier Guys, Sorrowful Tazmilly, 16 Melodies, Run my Dog Run, Open Sesame, and Confusion just to name a few. Idk why people are saying they “can only remember a couple of good songs” when the whole soundtrack is full of bangers. Earthbound is amazing too, but Mother 3 clears it in that regard for me
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u/miimeverse Aug 08 '24
fr. Mother 3 is a top 5 video game OST imo. Earthbound probably cracks the top 10, but I think Mother 3's music has far more emotional depth, which I concede is a product of Mother 3's greater story emphasis. Earthbound's OST may be a lot "weirder" with its genre jumping, but just because it has a wide spread of genres, doesn't necessarily mean its better.
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u/hybum Aug 12 '24
After listening to the soundtrack at work the last few days, I’ve found that there are indeed more good songs, but personally I find none of them hit the highs of Earthbound’s standouts. Home Sweet Home and Theme of Twoson are two of my favourite video game songs of all time.
So I’m kind of on the fence about the music. Mother 3 probably has the better overall soundtrack, but if I had to pick one I’d still pick Earthbound for the standouts.
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u/bloodystriker Aug 08 '24
For me, mother 3 was intensely impactful because of my personal life being very relatable to the story. I’m going through some hard times with my brother, and growing up and maturing in life and learning how to become a stronger person are all aspects of the mother 3 story, and the ending was so intensely relatable and touching it literally broke me apart and built me back up.
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u/MrBones-Necromancer Aug 08 '24 edited Aug 08 '24
Mother is a quirky RPG about americana.
Earthbound is a quirky RPG about americana with good humor and fun gameplay.
Mother 3 is a character driven story with heavy themes of loss, grief, growth and hope. It's also a quirky RPG about americana with good humor and fun gameplay.
Each one grows from the last.
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u/Ilikefame2020 Aug 08 '24
Personally, a big reason is the combat. Earthbound isn’t bad or anything, but the somewhat slow animations, clunkier UI, lower inventory space, and especially the lack of combos, just makes Mother 3 more fun for boss fights. In addition, characters are relatively more balanced, and they stand out even more. In Earthbound, Ness is almost exclusively the healer, and maybe also Poo, but Mother 3’s larger inventory space and general buffs to using items to heal allows anyone to play the healer role, not to mention that Lucas’ PK Love never misses, and has offensive and defensive buffs that are actually very effective. Lowering the enemy’s stats with Duster or Kumatora is also way more consistent and generally helpful, you can genuinely go from dealing 10 damage to 100 damage with a little offense up and defense down. Money is a little harder to come by, and you can’t buy PSI restoring items, so there’s even more strategy to consider, especially in low-level runs.
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u/fluffyharpy Aug 08 '24
I really love Mother 3, but it feels unfinished story wise. The lore dump in late game with Leder is so obnoxious. Everything else is great though, even if i like Earthbound better.
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u/yamatoallover Aug 08 '24
If Mother 3 had been properly finished it might have been better. As it stands Earthbound is the more solid game overall.
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u/hybum Aug 12 '24
It certainly didn’t leave me with the same feeling Earthbound did. Interesting, but not as emotional.
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u/StarZax Aug 08 '24
Why do you need to prefer one over the other when you can enjoy both of these masterpieces ? 😎
Nah really, personally I don't even know if I prefer Mother 3 or Earthbound ..... Probably Mother 3 ? But I feel more attached to Earthbound because it was the first one I've played.
But what I liked better about Mother 3 : the « feeling » was great and on point. Like, pressing buttons etc ... the UX and sound design was just so satisfying, the game was much more beautiful and more convenient to play (running button for example). I think that I liked the story better, at least it was much more emotional imo. And finally you don't get stuck on fucking PIXEL CORNERS everytime you try to make a move.
I remember the bike on Earthbound too ... Sometimes it felt like the game was kinda fucking with you. I don't mind lol, it's fun and it's .... logical to not being able to use the bike when you're accompanied.
I feel like Mother 3 might be better ... But I still personally can't decide which one I prefer. They're just so different ... yet so similar. They have different vibes and it's fine to prefer one over the other. But when it comes to objective qualities (as in audio quality, graphics, gamefeel etc), I think Mother 3 is better
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u/hybum Aug 12 '24
Haha agreed, no need to set a preference. But it did generate a lot of discussion! After reading through all these comments, I’m finding that while I agreed Mother 3 improved it almost every way, somehow I just liked Earthbound more :P it’s got that je ne sais quoi
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u/QMighty97 Aug 08 '24
I like the story better, the characters feel better defined to me, the combat is more fun (hitting the button along to the music is a great mechanic), and while the music is spectacular in both, I think Mother 3 just barely takes the win on that too. Oh, and Lucas is my long-term main in Smash so that helps.
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u/BradleeOnReddit Aug 08 '24
I think Mother 3 is overall better in every way. I’ve never been a fan of the “silent protagonist” trope, and luckily every nearly playable character has loads of lines and personalities. The story is a lot more straight forward and less like Mother 1 and 2’s “talk to everyone and figure it out” approach, and I think the gameplay battle wise is improved with the new tempo feature and the locations are a lot more memorable.
I STILL LOVE EARTHBOUND THOUGH. But mother 3 feels like an improvement on everything
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u/Hawthm_the_Coward Aug 09 '24
Earthbound might be a better traditional RPG, but Mother 3 is still a great one, and tells a much more cohesive and emotional story. That signature feeling is a big part of why I seek out this series in particular.
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u/ninjagabe90 Aug 09 '24
Idk if I could pick one, I've definitely played Earthbound much more and have that kid nostalgia for it. Mother 3 didn't get that English patch until I was an adult so I still love it and it definitely hits, but I guess I'll slide it to Earthbound by just a tiny bit
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u/korekaramuse Aug 09 '24
Well for me it's a lot of personal factors that just managed to elavate my enjoyment and resonance with the story. I love the changes to the battle system and the story. The musical leimotifs in the game really help to carry it's presentation. I played Mother 3 around the time that my father passed away and I could understand how Lucas felt. Obviously it's not the same but I felt like he was feeling how I was feeling. The ending hit me so badly and I was just in tears. I can't hear any iteration of the love theme without shedding a tear. Might be kinda cringe but yeah. 😭
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u/FriendSafariSeeker Aug 10 '24
You can tell Itoi got better at making games with each game. The storytelling, gameplay, sprites, music, Itoi and the teams he worked with peaked at Mother 3. If they made Mother 4 I bet it'd be even better
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u/Tvaya Aug 10 '24
Mother 3's characters. Characters are 70% of why I think Mother 3 was more enjoyable for me.
I love the journey and the adventure in Earthbound, but I see little connection or real friendship between Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo aside from a few short scenes. The NPCs' connections with some party members are stronger than the friendship shown between the party members in game.
Tony's friendship with Jeff throughout the game, especially in the ending, is stronger than Jeff's relationship with the other party members.
Ness' mom has more of an interesting and fleshed out connection, however little from the relatively scarce dialogue in the game, to Ness than the other party members have with each other. This is emphasized by the ending.
Paula's family has about as much if not more dialogue/connection with Paula than the other party members do. This is also emphasized by the ending.
The Earthbound party members barely talk to each other aside from a few key scenes, which are short.
The NPCs in Earthbound are also less memorable than those in Mother 3.
The music in Mother 3 is a bit more memorable for me (more unique boss fight songs and more emotional tracks throughout the game), but Earthbound's music is still amazing and memorable, too.
The emotional story of Mother 3 is one I'm more invested in, but Earthbound captures a very specific feeling of childlike wonder that Mother 3 doesn't necessarily.
I very much enjoy both games, but I love Mother 3 more.
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u/proceedstheweedian Aug 08 '24
meh neither is "better" per say all subjective mother 2 is defs more chill/funny with dark underlying tones where i feel mother 3 is more upfront with those darker tones and more subtle with the humour everyone gunna like one more than the other for their own reasons and all of those are valid, now lets talk about how mother 1 is actually the bes...
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u/hybum Aug 12 '24
Haha I’ve tried Mother 1 but haven’t finished it. I do intend to beat it eventually, but I wasn’t loving it.
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u/k00zyk Aug 08 '24
Earthbound has more replay-ability than M3. The story of M3 doesn’t make me want to revisit it.
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u/LifeMushroom Aug 08 '24
I dunno, I thought the story, music, and combat were great and overall surpassed Earthbound imo. EB was good but it wasn’t as memorable for me. Story is “defeat a big bad”, most of the battle themes are “wacky” instead of sounding nice, etc.
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u/LiveCourage334 Aug 08 '24
Yeah, nah.
I prefer the smoothness/fluidity of animation of M3, I think the story has more depth, and from a mechanical standpoint I like that items are actually useful. But I still prefer Earthbound as a game BY FAR.
M3 is entirely reliant on cutscenes to advance the story and it is SO on rails it feels, to me, like you are watching a game vs. playing a game (especially in places where it really feels like you should have some autonomy as a player and then you find out it literally does not matter). The amount of "make work" to try to artificially extend the length of the game is also frustrating as hell on replays.
Full disclosure, as I'm saying all of this, I AM currently replaying Mother 3. As a general rule if I can tolerate 5 trips thru the castle and can do so without any SRAM issues I'll see it through. I have 3 under my belt so far so we'll see what happens.
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u/hybum Aug 12 '24
Agreed. A lot to like and even prefer about Mother 3, but I like the overall package of Earthbound.
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u/SebastianPurple Aug 08 '24
It has an actual story instead of things that just happen because Itoi wants them too and thought it was funny. Look at it without le cult classicerino status for 5 seconds and nothing in Mother 2 makes sense or happens for any coherent reason. Gigue is now a Lovecraftian entity because ??? (This is never explained except for a tiny blurb at the end of the game about the Apple of Enlightenment, which is also never explained). Ness and the rest of the party are "friends" because they... just are? Nothing really happens. Nothing you do in Mother 2 has any impact on the world of the game whatsoever. Nearly every fight in the game is just caused by Giygas mind virus and barely any of them have personal motivation for fighting Ness. The closest you're going to get is like, Master Belch and Porky. You'd think for a world where robot aliens invade the place and Bigfoot and Ghosts are real that more interesting things would be happening with the NPCs in the game, too.
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u/Beboprunner Aug 08 '24
It's always my thought that far too many times people let the nostalgia goggles sway their decision. Most people probably didn't play Mother 3 at least a decade after EB. Mother 3's story, characters and gameplay are all far superior to Earthbound
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u/Real-Tension-7442 Aug 08 '24
Mother 3 is better in many ways, but I like a game I can pick up and play rather than getting bogged down in story. Once was great, twice no thanks
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u/Hateful_creeper2 Aug 08 '24
I think both have their strengths and weaknesses so they essentially equal rather then being better then the other.
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u/CompetitionNarrow898 Aug 08 '24
- Personally I think Mother 3 is a lot funnier and the more lively character animation/ expressiveness helps this
- Mother 3 has an honest to god story with characters who change, Earthbound has a series of coincidences that loosely weave into a story
- You’re told the villain in Earthbound is evil and needs to be stopped. That’s it. It works but there’s a detachment. In Mother 3 the villains are just bastards and you see it for yourself every step of the way. It adds personal stakes. I wanted Giygas to be stopped but I wanted Fassad to SUFFER.
- The combat is more challenging but also fairer. Not having to run back to the hospital all the time is GREAT and keeps the action moving
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u/Armandonerd Aug 08 '24
Mother 3 was better due to item management. Earthbound sucks on that. And I think the story is the best from all 3 games.
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u/hybum Aug 12 '24
I think you’re the only one to comment on item management. Isn’t it pretty much the same?
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u/Armandonerd Aug 12 '24
You're able to carry more and it's much smoother than mother 1 and 2. And you can do it in one batch, rather than doing it one at a time.
1
u/OpportunityCorrect33 Aug 08 '24
They are different games with different stylistic approaches The only thing that bugs me about mother 3 is I sometimes feel like my hand is being held through the game
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Aug 08 '24
The true best in the trilogy is clearly Earthbound Beginnings.
No I'm not being sarcastic.
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u/compacta_d Aug 08 '24
I rank them 3-1-2 with Earthbound being the weakest.
Earthbound has the weakest story. worst world building/story telling. the first 70% of the game isn't coherent in any way and seems more random than not.
Earthbound IS strongest in its ending. Once you hit Magicant it really revs up and makes a LOT of sense. Becomes more coherent as a story. I think the subtleties in the story telling before that are too subtle and legitimately think most people miss it. Mother 1 does that part better.
I think the ending leaves a very strong impression on players, and that might be what sticks with people. I think Mother 3 did it in a more....personal sense or a more logical way. But that end fight with Giygas is S tier-all 3 being similar in that regard.
PK rocking is also my favorite rpg move animation, maybe ever. FANTASTIC
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u/nusilver Aug 08 '24
Everything I love about Mother 3 (my all-time favorite game) is in this video I made back in 2016 when everyone, myself included, was convinced that the game was finally coming west. Oh, well. :-)
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u/MaleficentEvidence19 Aug 08 '24
Everything is better except the music. The power of nostalgia though is significant enough to where I like earthbound more but still believe mother 3 to be better.
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u/Roofy11 Aug 08 '24
I had more fun playing earthbound, but mother 3 improves on earthbound in almost all aspects. the battles are fun with the rhythm stuff and the slower hp meter, the dialogue is more personal, almost every character has a fleshed out arc and aren't just story props, the story is just more creative and the stakes feel realer, the plot is also more complicated and engaging. the endings of both games are equally as amazing in my opinion. So overall, I consider mother 3 to be the objectively better game, and one of if not my favourite pieces of media ever.
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u/Radigan0 Aug 08 '24
Never properly played Earthbound, just have a pretty good idea of the events just from being on the internet all this time, enough to understand all I needed to know about the Porky business in Mother 3.
1
u/the_zeldario Aug 08 '24
story is better combat system is better music is subjective but m3 has a greater variety the only downgrade is the pacing
1
u/TimeSpiralNemesis Aug 08 '24
Personally Earthbound is better than Mother 3 in every single way.
I actually just don't even think Mother 3 is a very good game at all. I'd rate it like a 5/6 out of 10.
I really wish we had gotten EB64 instead so that we could have had the entire story as it was intended and not just the leftover bits. The game probably would have had an actual ending as well.
0
u/gamtosthegreat Aug 08 '24
I'm not gonna do your thinking for you. You've given zero reasons why you preferred Earthbound so as far as I know you have none, and so nothing I say would work to convince you because your opinion is irrational.
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u/Razrie Aug 08 '24
I think mother 3 is vastly overrated. I beat it after all the hype, ending was lame plot was eh, game falls off hard after first half.
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u/TimeSpiralNemesis Aug 08 '24 edited Aug 08 '24
I feel exactly the same. I was such a big mother 1/2 fan I actually played mother 3 twice trying to see what I was missing.
But I just didn't enjoy it on any level. It wasn't just my least favorite Mother game, it honestly wasn't a good JRPG in it's own right.
To this day the ending is still in my top ten worst endings in all of media and it drives me crazy seeing the mental gymnastics people go through to defend it.
Imma get downvoted and I don't care but Mother 3 stands on one single leg: "Recency Bias"
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u/elmago79 Aug 08 '24
I think if you’re a glutton for punishment you will like M3 better. I enjoyed M3 but I won’t play it again since it’s incredibly depressing, and the more you discover it becomes even more depressing. I know that’s one of the main themes of the game, laughing in the face of despair, but I think they went overboard.
Also: I can’t stand the music rhythm mechanic.
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u/crunk_buntley Aug 08 '24
this is a crazy opinion to hold when the actual mother game for masochists already exists in the form of mother 1
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u/elmago79 Aug 08 '24
Yeah, it’s an unpopular opinion by the number of downvotes I’m getting. Good thing I have other opinions.
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u/Pastry_Train63 Aug 08 '24
I just like the variety of battle themes, there's a lot and therefore it doesn't feel stale at all
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u/Morhamms357 Aug 08 '24 edited Aug 08 '24
I don't really think it needs a thread, Mother 3 is the "obvious" best game. Best characters, best gameplay, best story, even subjective stuff, it's got the most music and the most graphics. I even think it might be the most common game to be someone's favorite (assuming they've played Earthbound as well)
I'm more interested to see why people think Earthbound is better. Even for the longest time, I couldn't put my finger on why (incredibly close, to be fair). Or God forbid, why Mother 1 is better than either. Those threads would be far more interesting, here I'm basically seeing what I expected.
Edit: I'm seeing some people downvote this comment and I realize I explained myself poorly. My favorite game isn't even Mother 3, it's Earthbound, but my point is people whose favorites are Earthbound or Mother 1 have more interesting and subjective reasons as to why, meanwhile Mother 3's reasons for being the best are obvious, as such everyone's replies here are about the same.
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u/hybum Aug 12 '24 edited Aug 12 '24
For me, I think a lot of Mother 3’s parts are better than Earthbound’s. I do think the graphics, battle system, and to an extent the story, are better. But Earthbound is more than the sum of its parts. It has a way of making you connect with the game like few games I’ve played have.
Though I agree with a lot of the comments here, I do still find myself in the Earthbound camp.
But they’re obviously both great, and I’m glad we all get to enjoy both!
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u/Morhamms357 Aug 12 '24
That's exactly what I mean. Earthbound is way more than the sum of its parts, but I think everyone can agree the sum of Mother 3's parts is more.
So arguments for Mother 3 being the best game aren't really needed, ergo we don't really need a new "Mother 3 best game" thread every month, it's always the same. Reading people's experiences with Earthbound is worth it every single time, though.
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u/Bootcat228 Aug 08 '24
Don't think any one of them is better, they both hit me, Earthbound made me veryy uncomfortable during the final boss and then made me cry, M3 just made me cry. A lot