i played through earthbound again earlier this year and i've thought about it occasionally ever since. not only earthbound but the mother franchise as a whole. i don't have nostalgia for the game at all, and infact only experienced it as an adult, much like how i experienced the mainline final fantasy games for the first time. i've also been aware of the "quirky indie RPG inspired by earthbound" joke that often circulated to mock how often the game was credited as an inspiration but i really wonder how many people have actually given earthbound a look to truly understand what people love about it so much. i really think it goes beyond how it plays around with RPG tropes.
i think whenever people think of the word 'deconstruction' there is often an associated negative connotation, as if there is something wrong with whatever is being deconstructed, but i don't think that's always the case. by defination, a deconstruction is simply a critical analysis of something, like a set of ideals or something more tangible like literature. in this case, i think the Mother series is something of a deconstruction of your typical RPG, but instead of disregarding what makes it an RPG it instead celebrates it and thinks up new ways to make the genre more interesting. every so often, there will always be people who create things that challenge the way we perceive something. it's only natural for us as human beings to be curious and think things like 'what if'.
when the first Mother game was released, it really was very different from any other RPG on the market, just from looking at any select screenshot i feel. for starters, most RPGs were very inspired by stuff like dungeons and dragons, anything written by Tolkien, or even the Wizardry and Ultima series of RPGs and pretty much almost exclusively used those very medieval high-fantasy settings. in those games it was common to fight monsters, slay dragons, save entire kingdoms or sometimes even save the whole world. sure Mother featured many similar elements in it, i mean there's an entire magical realm and you do end up saving the world by the end, but the overall feeling felt very modern, at least what you'd call modern in 1989. you explored cities, used telephones to save, visited ATMs to deposit and withdraw cash, and go to the hospital to heal your party of status ailments. plus the mother series was chock full of fun little moments, much of which you get just by exhausting NPC dialogue. that's already a far cry from the normal RPG faire!
and you know, i don't think anything sells just how different the Mother series is by looking at how they advertised the games in Japan, namely that one famous commercial advertising Mother 3 where a woman cries while describing her experience playing the game.
i think whenever people think of the word 'deconstruction' there is often an associated negative connotation, as if there is something wrong with whatever is being deconstructed, but i don't think that's always the case. by defination, a deconstruction is simply a critical analysis of something, like a set of ideals or something more tangible like literature. in this case, i think the Mother series is something of a deconstruction of your typical RPG, but instead of disregarding what makes it an RPG it instead celebrates it and thinks up new ways to make the genre more interesting. every so often, there will always be people who create things that challenge the way we perceive something. it's only natural for us as human beings to be curious and think things like 'what if'.
when the first Mother game was released, it really was very different from any other RPG on the market, just from looking at any select screenshot i feel. for starters, most RPGs were very inspired by stuff like dungeons and dragons, anything written by Tolkien, or even the Wizardry and Ultima series of RPGs and pretty much almost exclusively used those very medieval high-fantasy settings. in those games it was common to fight monsters, slay dragons, save entire kingdoms or sometimes even save the whole world. sure Mother featured many similar elements in it, i mean there's an entire magical realm and you do end up saving the world by the end, but the overall feeling felt very modern, at least what you'd call modern in 1989. you explored cities, used telephones to save, visited ATMs to deposit and withdraw cash, and go to the hospital to heal your party of status ailments. plus the mother series was chock full of fun little moments, much of which you get just by exhausting NPC dialogue. that's already a far cry from the normal RPG faire!
and you know, i don't think anything sells just how different the Mother series is by looking at how they advertised the games in Japan, namely that one famous commercial advertising Mother 3 where a woman cries while describing her experience playing the game.
i don't really want to spoil too much for those who haven't tried to play any of the games, but i really recommend starting with earthbound first specifically if you haven't checked them out and you like RPGs as much as I do.
the reason i don't recommend playing mother 1 (earthbound beginnings in the west) is because many people may not enjoy just how much of a retro RPG that game is. i'm trying to say this in the nicest way i can possible but RPGs as we think of them now were not always the standard, and we take much of the advancements of the genre for granted. but if that doesn't bother you, then mother 1 is also a pretty great RPG. it's a lot more simple compared to where the series would eventually end up, but i personally like the simplicity.
I personally think earthbound is a nice middleman of simple RPG storytelling and gameplay that doesn't make me want to throw my controller.
the reason i don't recommend playing mother 1 (earthbound beginnings in the west) is because many people may not enjoy just how much of a retro RPG that game is. i'm trying to say this in the nicest way i can possible but RPGs as we think of them now were not always the standard, and we take much of the advancements of the genre for granted. but if that doesn't bother you, then mother 1 is also a pretty great RPG. it's a lot more simple compared to where the series would eventually end up, but i personally like the simplicity.
I personally think earthbound is a nice middleman of simple RPG storytelling and gameplay that doesn't make me want to throw my controller.