15:53 This right here. It's so frustrating hearing people who are outside the Mother community on like gaming podcasts or wherever bring up Mother rumors and say, "Oh this could finally be the time Mother 3 is coming in English!" Or seeing people who would love the game but are held up waiting for an official release. After 18 years, if it was ever coming out in the West, it would have happened by now. Nintendo isn't making a dime off Mother 3 in 2024 either way. Just enjoy the superb English translation that already exists.
Anything can happen with Nintendo though. There were 33 years between the original Famicom Detective Club and the release of the remake, which allowed the west to finally experience that story (and Mother 3 has a lot more demand than that franchise over here). That and nobody could have called games like Another Code Recollection, or Endless Ocean Luminous releasing this year. They never forget about these franchises and will create something if they think the time is right.
I appreciate that you took the time to talk to everyone. I feel like that's a really good way to re experience a game that you've played before or have played all your life, but didn't really see all the details since you know what to do
Stephen really out here paying top attention to every NPC in Mother 3 but ignoring most NPCs in Breath of the Kingdom (no offense, i just think that's a very high contrast in comparison)
This video inspired me to replay Mother 3 for the first time in twelve years. Glad to say I had just as much fun as I did back then, and it remains my second favorite video game to this day. For what it's worth, I disagree with the advice to newcomers given at 6:00. Stephen is correct in that playing the first two games really enhances this one, but I don't believe they're essential to the experience, and 3 is a considerably better first impression of the Mother series. As for how my playthrough went, I did what Stephen did and played as thoroughly as possible: I examined all the dialogue options, got the rare drops, and even completed the Battle Memory. I also played on the fan translation's added Hard Mode; I went in thinking the inflated stats would just make the game more grindy, and while this is true for fights where you don't have many party members, elsewhere the difficulty increase actually made things more engaging. The inflated enemy stats further incentivize mastering the combo system and maximizing utility of buffs, debuffs, and items.
Mother 3 is my favorite game of all time, and I can safely say I would never had begun wanting to understand storytelling without what's its ending made me feel as a little kid. It's really genius.
Mother 3 is by far my favorite game ever made. I genuinely don't dislike a single thing about this game and you owe it to yourself to give it a shot! Also like Stephen said, do not wait for an official localization. It won't happen, I promise you of that.
I've been waiting for you tk make this video for years. Im glad it was thurough. You were pretty much the main reason i played through earthbound and mother 3. That was around 10-14 years ago. And while i loved Earthbound. Mother 3 stole my heart and became my favorite game, ever. Years of art projects and music later. I can site this game as a my biggest influence. I have a music video coming out in a month that very much was inspired by this game as well. It widened my horizons and fit snuggly right into my developing brain. I played through it over and over, and just like you marveled at how everybody's dialogue would change with even the slightest plot developments. Again. Most of this obsession and love came from seeing you urge people to play earthbound throughout your career. And i would scour and search your channel to hear you talk about Mother 3. And honestly it was usually fairly difficult to find you talking on the game. At least your personal thoughts. Youd reference how you absorbed more in your japanese playthrough than the english and little heart was just begging for you to play through it again and talk about it. Now that kid in me is jumping for joy. Im really glad to hear you had a thorough experience and hear you advocate for people to play through the translation. It is so easy to acquire. And as we approach the game's 20th anniversary. It should be stressed that it's just not worth waiting for an official release that very likely won't ever happen. Do yourself a favor and give it a playthrough. Hell if anything the game gaining more fans this way at least shows nintendo what they're missing out on. I think of how consistently well Earthbound sold on Wii u (it was always on the front page) and it really cements how boneheaded their willful ignorance has been with Mother 3. Thanks you Stephen. Also by the way, Lloyds are *not* Christmas.
So there's this fan remake, in development, of Mother 1 I stumbled onto a bit ago. They had a demo I tried out and actually enjoyed from the little bit I played. It has a lot of the visual style and charm of Mothrler 3. If (but hopefully when) it's complete, I'd love you to try it out and hear your opinions on it. Just from the little I've played, it seems right up your ally. If I ever have to play Mother 1, this game feels like the way I'd personally would like to experience it.
My first time through Mother 3 was also with the Japanese version! I don’t remember much from then, but I wrote in my Mother 3 Fangamer guide that I finished it on August 3, 2009. I was able to put the game on my 3DS and it’s about as official as you can possibly get and it looks really good there.
I feel the same way you do ab how much you remember of mother 3 about the xenoblade series specifically xenoblade 2, and it will forever be the game i love the most for those reasons
16:05 Was the timing for the music here intentional? I'm really glad you enjoyed playing Mother 3 again. It's been on my backlog for a long while but I've never sat down and played past chapter 1 because of college and work taking up all my free time. I'll give it another shot soon.
As soon as MOTHER 3 came out on NSO, I made a Japanese account and got the game for myself to play it in Japanese for the first time. I finished it a while ago, but it felt so special to play it in the only official way I _can_ play it these days, and to have played through the game 'as intended' in its original language. (Also, it was wonderful to get the puns, dialects, and jokes in Japanese!) I also never got a game over, though I did 'cheat' and rewind a few times plus loading a save state 😅 But I made it through without getting a game over, heck yeah! Also, I 100% agree that you _have_ to play MOTHER 2 or EarthBound before MOTHER 3. I played the games in the order that the Deku scrub tells you to kill Queen Gohma in Ocarina of Time: 2-3-1, "twenty-three is number one!" And I've seen some recommend against it, but I still personally recommend playing the games in that order. 🌎
I finished my last playthrough of MOTHER 3 over 11 years ago. I should play it. It's still tied for my favourite game, but I wonder how much experiencing it now that I'm almost 30 will impact me.
One of my biggest regrets (at least, in terms of video games) is watching a let's play of this game rather than playing it myself. I'd already seen spoilers from reading the wiki when I was first getting into EarthBound and the game wasn't yet easily accessible to me - but, still. I wish I had experienced it for myself. There isn't anything quite like it. I still considered it my favorite game for awhile, even having not played it, just because of how beautiful the story is.
Ah gotta love Mother 3! I have a friend that i couldnt convince to play earthbound but i could convince him to play Mother 3 because of how much i hyped up the story. Then afterword i was like "you should play earthbound now so you can get some of the references" and he was like "nah earthbound is too old." (He never wants to play snes games im guessing because he never had one as a kid. Sad times...)
I realized why I haven't been able to play this game much, because I was using my keyboard! I have the fan translation and just ordered a controller that will hook up to my computer so I can finally enjoy the game! Surprised it took me to 2024 to play this game! :)
It's sad to admit, but I've only played Mother 3 in its entirety one time. I think having to play it on an emulator on my PC was mostly the reason for that, and I've never really explored alternative ways of playing it. Having said that, I absolutely loved the game itself, and what an opportunity, to play it professionally translated by Tomato. In any case, I think it's about time to play it again.
3:30 It gets so depressing seeing the passage of time of Mother 3. Spoiler Especially the timeskip, and ESPECIALLY ESPECIALLY after you visit Tanetane Island. The music destroyed me.
I have not played this game yet. And my heart was literally broken when they announced it wouldn't be coming to the US when it gets re released for the switch. It feels malicious at this point. They have to know. I don't want to pirate the game but at this rate if i want to play it i'll have to. They have given me literally no option at this point. I first played earthbound on the wii u. I loved it. I have long waited for the day i would get to purchase the sequel; I can only imagine the wait and let down for people who were denied the game originally in 2006. Do they just not want our money? I literally do not understand. It costs nothing to get a hold of a translation that's been offered. It wouldn't take much effort to make an english translation to begin with. It's ridiculous and unfair.
I just watched the last vlog where you said Super Metroid was gonna be talked about more when you beat it and when you said I beat Mother 3 on this vlog I heard Metroid 3 and was so confused
Spoilers for Mother 3's subject matter ahead. No plotlines overly detailed, and any character names mentioned are not contextual spoilers to first time players. I always tell people as soon as they can to play it especially because I never thought there would be an official translation. Even though I still don't, we are closer now more than ever to it because of, all things, Paper Mario TTYD. The Magypsies' visibly genderqueer identities are often cited as a reason for a lack of a localization, but Nintendo has shown they are willing to fully revisit transgender characters like Vivian in a sensitive and positive light. While Mother 3 has many other dark themes leaving it hard to localize (oppression under capitalism, child suicide), the Magypsies I believe are no longer a barrier. They are incredibly sympathetic, sensitive characters who are integral to the story and the actions of Lucas, and it is especially intriguing to essentially have a de-transition as survival metaphor with Locria (no spoilers beyond that). Along with that, Nintendo has spent the better part of a few years localizing never before seen video games onto the Switch, and rereleasing older classics we thought they'd never touch. I think if it doesn't happen next Direct, it fully won't happen.
I want to play the fan translation, but had never played a rom of anything. Never had download a PC game. No Steam account. Only have Photoshop on my computer. So to say, I'm scared, have no idea what I'm doing, and cannot understand the instructions of how to download and play it at all.
Its can be intimidating, but at least downloading the emulator and the patch is easy enough! Vimm's Lair is a great resource for getting started with emulation, offering both emulators and ROMs of other older games. They even have a version of Mother 3 there with the translation already applied. At the very least, give the site a peek if you have any interest :)
I haven’t played any of the Earthbound/Mother series (though I plan to eventually on NSO! So many games out there! Plus then I can watch all those Josh streams!) so I had no idea the Mother 3 translation was done by a professional. Nintendo is always an enigma but seems weird they wouldn’t just pay to use that one - since it’s already done - and throw it on NSO? Since it’s already done surely there’s enough of a demand? I mean obviously rights issues and it’s not as easy as saying it (and I’m sure things you all have thought of a ton before) but so weird
I got to chapter 2 and then haven’t played the game in a while, though I think I definitely wanna at least play when Josh starts and be at least ahead so I experience it myself. I think the only thing I don’t really like so far is that you don’t hold the button to run. I feel like I’d prefer it to be normal, hold it when I wanna run and let go when I don’t. It’s not that big of a deal though the game has been great so far. (Also, I feel the same way about Xenoblade ehehe (about playing earthbound first. Xenoblade should be played in the numbered order, you’ll get more out of 2 if you play the first game and ESPECIALLY so for 3 and doubly so for 3’s DLC story))
I've played Mother 3 like 6 times since 2013, it's definitely my favorite video game of all time. I've come to terms that Mother 3 will never be localized, and maybe that's for the best. Sorry to bring politics into this comment section, but the bigoted right-wing people would tear it apart with it's anti-capitalism and anti-usa themes, not to mention they would hate the Magypsies, and would call the story as a whole demonic. Nintendo would not look good at all. But if you are against emulation for games, and want to play Mother 3, please make this your exception. It will never ever ever get localized, and I truly think Nintendo would prefer you to emulate it and use the fan translation. It's such a masterpiece of a game. A game about the deepest bonds of friends and family. And love. Edit: Stephen, please stream it someday! I'm sure you get that request a lot, but it would truly be something special.
SPOILER . . . . . . . . . . I’m at the point in the game right after you get the item from Ionia before fighting the Masked Man and I’m making the choice to grind a bit before the fight. I can’t say enough great things about this game and I only wish I had discovered the franchise sooner!
15:53 This right here. It's so frustrating hearing people who are outside the Mother community on like gaming podcasts or wherever bring up Mother rumors and say, "Oh this could finally be the time Mother 3 is coming in English!" Or seeing people who would love the game but are held up waiting for an official release. After 18 years, if it was ever coming out in the West, it would have happened by now. Nintendo isn't making a dime off Mother 3 in 2024 either way. Just enjoy the superb English translation that already exists.
Anything can happen with Nintendo though. There were 33 years between the original Famicom Detective Club and the release of the remake, which allowed the west to finally experience that story (and Mother 3 has a lot more demand than that franchise over here). That and nobody could have called games like Another Code Recollection, or Endless Ocean Luminous releasing this year. They never forget about these franchises and will create something if they think the time is right.
Me before this vlog: "it can't be that long since I played Mother 3!"
Me while watching: "Omg, it's been 8 years...."
I appreciate that you took the time to talk to everyone. I feel like that's a really good way to re experience a game that you've played before or have played all your life, but didn't really see all the details since you know what to do
I just gotta say, it's been nice to see you enjoying some games for leisure in your spare time nowadays. 🙂
I played through Mother 3 for the first time earlier this year and it was really really great! Also, white t-shirt vloggg
Stephen really out here paying top attention to every NPC in Mother 3 but ignoring most NPCs in Breath of the Kingdom
(no offense, i just think that's a very high contrast in comparison)
I was concerned when I saw my Icon in the thumbnail. 😂
This video inspired me to replay Mother 3 for the first time in twelve years. Glad to say I had just as much fun as I did back then, and it remains my second favorite video game to this day.
For what it's worth, I disagree with the advice to newcomers given at 6:00. Stephen is correct in that playing the first two games really enhances this one, but I don't believe they're essential to the experience, and 3 is a considerably better first impression of the Mother series.
As for how my playthrough went, I did what Stephen did and played as thoroughly as possible: I examined all the dialogue options, got the rare drops, and even completed the Battle Memory. I also played on the fan translation's added Hard Mode; I went in thinking the inflated stats would just make the game more grindy, and while this is true for fights where you don't have many party members, elsewhere the difficulty increase actually made things more engaging. The inflated enemy stats further incentivize mastering the combo system and maximizing utility of buffs, debuffs, and items.
I love how happy you are about playing Mother 3 :)
Mother 3 is my favorite game of all time, and I can safely say I would never had begun wanting to understand storytelling without what's its ending made me feel as a little kid. It's really genius.
Mother 3 is by far my favorite game ever made. I genuinely don't dislike a single thing about this game and you owe it to yourself to give it a shot!
Also like Stephen said, do not wait for an official localization. It won't happen, I promise you of that.
I've been waiting for you tk make this video for years. Im glad it was thurough.
You were pretty much the main reason i played through earthbound and mother 3. That was around 10-14 years ago. And while i loved Earthbound. Mother 3 stole my heart and became my favorite game, ever.
Years of art projects and music later. I can site this game as a my biggest influence. I have a music video coming out in a month that very much was inspired by this game as well. It widened my horizons and fit snuggly right into my developing brain. I played through it over and over, and just like you marveled at how everybody's dialogue would change with even the slightest plot developments.
Again. Most of this obsession and love came from seeing you urge people to play earthbound throughout your career. And i would scour and search your channel to hear you talk about Mother 3. And honestly it was usually fairly difficult to find you talking on the game. At least your personal thoughts. Youd reference how you absorbed more in your japanese playthrough than the english and little heart was just begging for you to play through it again and talk about it.
Now that kid in me is jumping for joy. Im really glad to hear you had a thorough experience and hear you advocate for people to play through the translation. It is so easy to acquire. And as we approach the game's 20th anniversary. It should be stressed that it's just not worth waiting for an official release that very likely won't ever happen. Do yourself a favor and give it a playthrough. Hell if anything the game gaining more fans this way at least shows nintendo what they're missing out on. I think of how consistently well Earthbound sold on Wii u (it was always on the front page) and it really cements how boneheaded their willful ignorance has been with Mother 3.
Thanks you Stephen. Also by the way, Lloyds are *not* Christmas.
So there's this fan remake, in development, of Mother 1 I stumbled onto a bit ago. They had a demo I tried out and actually enjoyed from the little bit I played. It has a lot of the visual style and charm of Mothrler 3. If (but hopefully when) it's complete, I'd love you to try it out and hear your opinions on it.
Just from the little I've played, it seems right up your ally. If I ever have to play Mother 1, this game feels like the way I'd personally would like to experience it.
My first time through Mother 3 was also with the Japanese version! I don’t remember much from then, but I wrote in my Mother 3 Fangamer guide that I finished it on August 3, 2009. I was able to put the game on my 3DS and it’s about as official as you can possibly get and it looks really good there.
I feel the same way you do ab how much you remember of mother 3 about the xenoblade series specifically xenoblade 2, and it will forever be the game i love the most for those reasons
16:05
Was the timing for the music here intentional?
I'm really glad you enjoyed playing Mother 3 again. It's been on my backlog for a long while but I've never sat down and played past chapter 1 because of college and work taking up all my free time. I'll give it another shot soon.
As soon as MOTHER 3 came out on NSO, I made a Japanese account and got the game for myself to play it in Japanese for the first time. I finished it a while ago, but it felt so special to play it in the only official way I _can_ play it these days, and to have played through the game 'as intended' in its original language. (Also, it was wonderful to get the puns, dialects, and jokes in Japanese!) I also never got a game over, though I did 'cheat' and rewind a few times plus loading a save state 😅 But I made it through without getting a game over, heck yeah!
Also, I 100% agree that you _have_ to play MOTHER 2 or EarthBound before MOTHER 3. I played the games in the order that the Deku scrub tells you to kill Queen Gohma in Ocarina of Time: 2-3-1, "twenty-three is number one!" And I've seen some recommend against it, but I still personally recommend playing the games in that order. 🌎
I finished my last playthrough of MOTHER 3 over 11 years ago. I should play it. It's still tied for my favourite game, but I wonder how much experiencing it now that I'm almost 30 will impact me.
I played it earlier this year for the first time and it blew my mind. I loved it and so glad I finally played it
I actually started mother 3 for the first time on this vlog day, which is kind of a coincidence
It's been said before, and it'll be said again. Play the fan translation. If Nintendo won't do it, then do what you need to do.
Where can I find the fan translation? I want to be able to play it once I beat Earthbound on NSO.
@@NaviNeku24 Search Mother 3 Tomato (since that's the handle of the guy who did the translation). There, you'll find a patch for a ROM
One of my biggest regrets (at least, in terms of video games) is watching a let's play of this game rather than playing it myself. I'd already seen spoilers from reading the wiki when I was first getting into EarthBound and the game wasn't yet easily accessible to me - but, still. I wish I had experienced it for myself. There isn't anything quite like it. I still considered it my favorite game for awhile, even having not played it, just because of how beautiful the story is.
17:10 "Hit return a few times" tell me you're a Mac person without telling me you're a Mac person.
Ah gotta love Mother 3! I have a friend that i couldnt convince to play earthbound but i could convince him to play Mother 3 because of how much i hyped up the story. Then afterword i was like "you should play earthbound now so you can get some of the references" and he was like "nah earthbound is too old." (He never wants to play snes games im guessing because he never had one as a kid. Sad times...)
I realized why I haven't been able to play this game much, because I was using my keyboard! I have the fan translation and just ordered a controller that will hook up to my computer so I can finally enjoy the game! Surprised it took me to 2024 to play this game! :)
1:30 You could play Mother 3 on Xbox? I forget that the Xbox can just play emulators.
So if one wanted to play Mother 3, does anyone know of a resource to help a tech dummy get an English fan-translation rom?
Technically, you did play a little bit of Mother 3 for Extra Life 2016. But still, that’s 8 years ago.
Oh good 2016 was 8 years ago
“You’re the Mother guy”
That can be taken out of context :V
Stephen "Oedipus" Georg
It's sad to admit, but I've only played Mother 3 in its entirety one time. I think having to play it on an emulator on my PC was mostly the reason for that, and I've never really explored alternative ways of playing it. Having said that, I absolutely loved the game itself, and what an opportunity, to play it professionally translated by Tomato. In any case, I think it's about time to play it again.
When the Mother 3 LP drop
3:30 It gets so depressing seeing the passage of time of Mother 3.
Spoiler
Especially the timeskip, and ESPECIALLY ESPECIALLY after you visit Tanetane Island. The music destroyed me.
I have not played this game yet. And my heart was literally broken when they announced it wouldn't be coming to the US when it gets re released for the switch. It feels malicious at this point. They have to know. I don't want to pirate the game but at this rate if i want to play it i'll have to. They have given me literally no option at this point. I first played earthbound on the wii u. I loved it. I have long waited for the day i would get to purchase the sequel; I can only imagine the wait and let down for people who were denied the game originally in 2006. Do they just not want our money? I literally do not understand. It costs nothing to get a hold of a translation that's been offered. It wouldn't take much effort to make an english translation to begin with. It's ridiculous and unfair.
I just watched the last vlog where you said Super Metroid was gonna be talked about more when you beat it and when you said I beat Mother 3 on this vlog I heard Metroid 3 and was so confused
I've watched two blind LPs of Mother 3, and never watched or played Earthbound. I might just keep it that way for the lulz. 😂
I misread the title as "I haven't played a video game in 14 years"
Sounds like it's time for an Earthbound Beginnings playthrough - it is my favorite of the 3!
13:40 oh you're supposed to retain a lot of information from your late teens? Oh...
Is that normal? 😅
Spoilers for Mother 3's subject matter ahead. No plotlines overly detailed, and any character names mentioned are not contextual spoilers to first time players.
I always tell people as soon as they can to play it especially because I never thought there would be an official translation. Even though I still don't, we are closer now more than ever to it because of, all things, Paper Mario TTYD. The Magypsies' visibly genderqueer identities are often cited as a reason for a lack of a localization, but Nintendo has shown they are willing to fully revisit transgender characters like Vivian in a sensitive and positive light. While Mother 3 has many other dark themes leaving it hard to localize (oppression under capitalism, child suicide), the Magypsies I believe are no longer a barrier. They are incredibly sympathetic, sensitive characters who are integral to the story and the actions of Lucas, and it is especially intriguing to essentially have a de-transition as survival metaphor with Locria (no spoilers beyond that). Along with that, Nintendo has spent the better part of a few years localizing never before seen video games onto the Switch, and rereleasing older classics we thought they'd never touch. I think if it doesn't happen next Direct, it fully won't happen.
I want to play the fan translation, but had never played a rom of anything. Never had download a PC game. No Steam account. Only have Photoshop on my computer. So to say, I'm scared, have no idea what I'm doing, and cannot understand the instructions of how to download and play it at all.
This is relatable.
Its can be intimidating, but at least downloading the emulator and the patch is easy enough!
Vimm's Lair is a great resource for getting started with emulation, offering both emulators and ROMs of other older games.
They even have a version of Mother 3 there with the translation already applied. At the very least, give the site a peek if you have any interest :)
It isn't hard to google Emulators for Mac.
I haven’t played any of the Earthbound/Mother series (though I plan to eventually on NSO! So many games out there! Plus then I can watch all those Josh streams!) so I had no idea the Mother 3 translation was done by a professional. Nintendo is always an enigma but seems weird they wouldn’t just pay to use that one - since it’s already done - and throw it on NSO? Since it’s already done surely there’s enough of a demand? I mean obviously rights issues and it’s not as easy as saying it (and I’m sure things you all have thought of a ton before) but so weird
Mother 3 is peak. So sad it will never get an official rerelease
I got to chapter 2 and then haven’t played the game in a while, though I think I definitely wanna at least play when Josh starts and be at least ahead so I experience it myself.
I think the only thing I don’t really like so far is that you don’t hold the button to run. I feel like I’d prefer it to be normal, hold it when I wanna run and let go when I don’t. It’s not that big of a deal though the game has been great so far.
(Also, I feel the same way about Xenoblade ehehe (about playing earthbound first. Xenoblade should be played in the numbered order, you’ll get more out of 2 if you play the first game and ESPECIALLY so for 3 and doubly so for 3’s DLC story))
“How can I make this about Xenoblade 😈”
Alright I’ll finally play Earthbound/Mother 3 on delta.
Maybe it's the story and character focus, but Mother 3 feels much better playing after having not for a period of time.
So I've found that 2D Zelda games work pretty well on the phone so that could be something else you could try sometime
Delta App!!! Ive already played some oldie but goodies on my phone
how would one go about playing earthbound for the first time? ive been meaning to for a while buuutttt life gets in the way
I've played Mother 3 like 6 times since 2013, it's definitely my favorite video game of all time. I've come to terms that Mother 3 will never be localized, and maybe that's for the best. Sorry to bring politics into this comment section, but the bigoted right-wing people would tear it apart with it's anti-capitalism and anti-usa themes, not to mention they would hate the Magypsies, and would call the story as a whole demonic. Nintendo would not look good at all.
But if you are against emulation for games, and want to play Mother 3, please make this your exception. It will never ever ever get localized, and I truly think Nintendo would prefer you to emulate it and use the fan translation. It's such a masterpiece of a game. A game about the deepest bonds of friends and family. And love.
Edit: Stephen, please stream it someday! I'm sure you get that request a lot, but it would truly be something special.
SPOILER
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.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
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I’m at the point in the game right after you get the item from Ionia before fighting the Masked Man and I’m making the choice to grind a bit before the fight. I can’t say enough great things about this game and I only wish I had discovered the franchise sooner!
Nice
beat mother algorithm comment (scandalous)
you look like your dad hahaha
First