The real reason Nintendo hasn't released Mother 3 to the west is because they're waiting for every mother fan to beat Earthbound Beginnings first.

this game is also really cool because you can say "yeah i had to ride a plane 3 times in order to drive a tank through a desert to kill a giant robot guarding a cave full of monkeys" and have that be entirely true

The four horsemen of Mother 1: "The Plasma Beam was broken" "[enemy] tried PK Beam γ!" "Red Snake ran away..." [battle start sound] "Ninten ran away..." [battle start sound] "Ninten ran away..." [battle start sound] "Ninten ran away..."[battle start sound]

It's actually funny that you say the game was likely not playtested, because one common story is that the final area, Mt. Itoi, was not playtested _at all_ due to time constraints and the result was the most infamous difficulty spike in the game

The virgin: earthbound beginnings The chad: mother encore

Supposedly the reason Miyamoto was unsure about Itoi's intentions about making a video game was due to Takeshi's Challenge, which was infamous due to its deliberately obtuse game design and its primary gimmick being that Takeshi Kitano wrote a majority of the game's ideas while drinking at a bar.

Even if it is rough around the edges, it is still worth playing maybe with a couple mods installed. At least it's still one of a kind in the world of gaming, and gave rise to one of the best trilogies of all time. Thank you for doing this, for one of the lesser talked about games. You gave it a fair shot and your points were valid and well put. Keep up the good work and have a nice day.

this video singlehandedly manifested the switch release i just beat eb0 today and i think i like it almost as much as mother 3 which is my favorite game of all time

Even with a lot of poor game mechanic and limitation, Earthbound Beginnings is still my favourite game from the Mother trilogy. Earthbound and Mother 3 are a really good game, it just they all have different feels. Mother 3 feels somber, not in a bad way but it's focusing on the tragic aspect where the characters have to move on. Earthbound feels quirky, it's focusing on the fun and chosen one plot to safe the world. While Earthbound Beginnings feels simple, it doesn't has the best story nor gameplay, yet the simplicity make it unique in the way I feel nostalgic, even tho I didn't grow up with the series and just find it during my teenage years. And this is just my bias for grinding, so I'm not annoyed with the random encounter, instead I love it! I agree that the map is very annoying, the first time I play it I got lost to Youngtown, which is close to the end game contain with only Ninten and Lloyd in my party! But at least I got teleport and make it easier to traveling around the map. Thank you for covering Earthbound Beginnings, it's kinda rare to see someone reviewing this game, especially in 2021, after 32 years since it come out. Please continue your good job!

This is an excellent video. The grinding montage and the Wally joke killed me. It's so nice hearing someone give this game a fair chance. Most video reviews I've seen on this game are from people who really want to review Mother 2 and 3 and only review Mother out of a sense of obligation. This review had insightful thoughts to share and I appreciate that you did more than just tear into the dated aspects of the game. They're important, but not the whole story. Mother is my favorite entry in the series. It has my favorite story and I like the simplicity of the game. The first playthrough can be rough. But it's the type of game that gets better every time you play it. Once you know where to go and how to succeed at the battle system, it becomes a very quick and streamlined experience. And you can play it a bit differently every time; I've beaten the game without Ana, I've beaten the game with Teddy, I've beaten the game skipping Teddy entirely, I've beaten the game by going to Youngtown before Halloween, I've beaten the game going to Halloween before Youngtown, I've beaten the game without the train, I've been to the monkey caves, I've skipped the monkey caves, etc., etc.. There's an element of open-endedness and player choice that is unique in the series and I appreciate it for it. For the record at 35:37 I didn't think you were a pussy. Disliking high learning curves and at times unfair gameplay is valid. Though if I have to be elitist about something... When enemies use Beam Gamma it's less of a "fuck you" spell and more of a "fuck me" spell. They only appear after Duncan's factory, and if you get the second Franklin Badge there, they have only a 1/3 chance to kill one of your party members but a 2/3 chance of killing themselves. ;)

18:38 LMAO! How have I never thought about that?! Ninten literally teamed up with a school shooter

I played Pong at a museum once and actually got hooked. It's really fun

In my playthrough, I got lucky and managed to reach podunk with no random encounters. But then I went to merrysville and got an encounter every 3 seconds.

31:00 I know you just blurted that out in frustration, but it's actually true! The dev team ran out of time around the factory dungeon and tested it with invincibility cheats to just make sure the game didn't crash, they didn't have time to test it for balance from that point onwards.

I've gotta say, I ADORE this video. It captures all of my thoughts towards MOTHER perfectly! It's almost like you took the words directly out of my mouth... MOTHER has always been my favorite of the series due to it's uniqueness compared to EarthBound or MOTHER 3, and to see someone simultaneously rip this game to SHREDS and praise it's highest point is more then just entertaining to watch. This is a super good video for MOTHER fans. Good job, switch1e!

cool video man. earthbound zero was actually the first mother game that i played, and i'm definitely biased because of it but i think it's definitely overhated and misunderstood. it's insane that they made an RPG this compelling and unique on the famicom, it's genuinely a work of art and even though its sequels are more fleshed out in almost every way, i find earthbound zero to be uniquely charming. thanks for your hard work, this is a fun video : )

I played this game after when I played Earthbound on the Wii U & I didn't like the game myself due to those reasons you mentioned. The music though is great for the NES & those live covers are amazing. I constantly listen to Pollyanna.

i never knew too much about mother 1, but i'd heard the "no crying until the end" quote in mother 3. neat to know it's a reference to the original! now i'm kinda interested in playing this, too. i always loved the story in these games, and i think i can push myself through the more primitive gameplay. fuckin nice video, keep it up :)

I literally just finished earthbound beginnings so im kinda excited to see this

Mother 1 was my first experience with the series. I absolutely loved it.

The pong analogy is actually a really good way to explain why historical context matters in criticism, well done

currently suffering through this game, nice review several nuggets/10

As a *MAJOR* Mother 1 fan I really do appreciate this video although I disagree with you at some parts you make really good points. Mother 1 is indeed a masterpiece with its story, music, and characters. The only thing is that the game was being held back a bit due to the NES' limited hardware and Itoi's small knowledge of creating video games at the time of making Mother 1. I think some people need to realize this was Itoi's first time making a video game and for his first time its an amazing work of art. Mother 1 is one of those games that 100% deserve a Remake some time in the future. I've seen people begging for a Mother 2 Remake all the time, but think to yourself do you think Mother 2 *deserves* a remake. I'm not saying Mother 2's a bad game not at all. That's actually the main reason it doesn't need a remake due to it already being a good game that doesn't really have too many problems caused by aging (well there are some such as the lack of running and for some odd reason even though it wasn't in Mother 1 the addition of making equipped items stay in your inventory slot instead of just staying in ur equip slot without "wasting" a space in your inventory.) and like the saying goes "If it aint broke, don't fix it." Mother 1 on the other hand has an amazing story to tell but it can't really do it that well due to the limited hardware it was on. In my opinion Mother 1's protagonists are *WAY* more fleshed out than Mother 2's. Every protagonist in Mother 1 has a reason for going on this grand adventure unlike Mother 2's: *Ninten* - Related in some way shape or form to the main threat/ villain (can't explain how or why cause spoilers) *Lloyd* - Ninten becomes his only friend and homies stick together (Its also explained in the Mother 1's Novelization Adaptation that Lloyd's Mother is deathly ill with an disease and the only way to cure the illness is a specific flower in Youngtown, but take the novel being canon or not as you will) *Ana* - Mother goes missing and joins Ninten and Lloyd in hopes of finding her lost Mother on their adventure *Teddy* - (This one is super cliche, but) Parents were killed by aliens on Mt Itoi and wants to join Ninten on their trek to Mt Itoi to avenge his parents Mother 2 on the other hand throws all of that out the window and just goes with the cliche over done "Chosen One" and destined to save the world or something approach. Even with outside media of Mother 1 such a the Guide Manual that came with the official Japanese release of Mother 1 and the Mother Encylopedia Book helps flesh out the world by telling each towns population. Protagonists everyday life, and other little tidbits and information that really gets the player to understand and connect to the world of Mother 1 even better. (Fun Fact: Lloyd is canonically a Mac Users), but yeah Mother 2 may have the more fleshed out gameplay and humor but the game aint got shit on Mother 1 with Story and Characters

if the grinding is annoying, there's a version of the game on the gba (mother 1+2). the translation of this version adds the easy ring : an item that makes encounters less frequent and gives you more experience, both of these things being ideas you say would make this game better

I think Chuggaconroy was right about this game that the more you replay it the better it gets. I've played through mother 1 three times since it was released on the wii u and each time I had more and more fun with the game. The grinding and high encounter rate suck though. My advice is to abuse save states regularly.

Wish I could listen to Pollyanna more often, but I cry every time I hear it I first heard the song during a terrible part of my life, and as corny as the lyrics may be to some, they were just what I needed at the time Sometimes I need to hear the song to cheer me up, remind me that in a world of miracles, what's to say I can't pull one off myself? If I ever have kids, I'll be singing that song to them as their lullaby, even if I sob my way through it

This was a bit bloody good Kyle!! Told a proper story and I learned tons. I’m never ever gonna play Mother 1 so I needed this for sure

i love the part in pong where the right pong said: "its pong time" before beating the opponent. its one of the moments in gaming history.

Additional fun fact about Itoi: He's the voice of Satsuki and Mei's dad in My Neighbour Totoro.

So excited. You’ve easily become one of my favorite KZfaqrs. Always tune in for anything you have😆

I always found it weird how people would refer to M1 as game that was way too hard and was skipped by everyone, because is my personal favorite of the trilogy, later I discovered that the reason why I didn't have a terrible experience with it was because the edition I played was the GBA port which was also a hack room since it included the "Easy Ring" and my mind didn't process it as "Easy Mode", reason why I could actually enjoy the game and have some moments stuck in my heart like stone. Thanks to whoever made that hackroom, you allowed me to have a wonderful experience with the game even with it's flaws (I didn't find the zoo with the singing bird at first, didn't know what to do for a while lol)

I think the craziest thing about MOTHER is that it's actually fairly forgiving compared to its contemporaries, but only the best games of this era really entered into the greater pop-cultural subconscious, so it's not remembered as positively as it really should be. Next to the Dragon Quests and Final Fantasies, sure, it's a bit weak, but compared to the many other 8-bit RPGs of the time it's an absolute star. Crazy how far we've come.

The Earthbound series is the goat

This reminds me so much of a KZfaq video I would watch when I was super into the MOTHER series... thank you for making me so nostalgic, even if just for a short time! Great review, too. Can't remember the last time I saw such a comprehensive deep dive of MOTHER 1.

Even though Earthbound Beginnings is my 2nd favourite game of all time, and my favourite Mother game, your criticism is pretty true

this might be your best video so far, great work

I am happily subscribing after watching this. Everything about this is awesome and your taste in music rules - dropping Sweet Trip and Built to Spill on those transitions was kick ass. Mother is my favorite game series and this is a well deserved roast. In the words of Jeff Ross, “we have to roast the ones we love”. You nailed it.

Itoi said that you could say that Ninten and Ness are the same person if you want. He made it so you could choose if he is.

I have similar feelings to Mother 1. I played it after Earthbound and Mother 3, and it really was hard to get into. Objectively, it's really rough and dated. Random encounters annoyed the hell out of me, the grinding got ridiculous at times, the story only really kicked in at the end, and I had to use a guide for some of the melodies because of the lack of direction. But at the same time, I can't help but love the game. It surprised me how much from the game influenced Earthbound, like the music and the characters. And I just have a soft spot for this series. The themes of moving on and love that are hidden in the story and tiny details are great and the ending just makes me so happy. I love Ninten's connection to the party members, it felt deeper and more genuine to me than Ness' bonds with the Earthbound crew. The music was great, especially in some areas like Snowman. Overall while the gameplay is dated and frustrating, the game as an overall package is still something special and I'm thankful it started possibly my favorite video game franchise of all time, Mother.

The story of Ninten and Ana, Ness's parents

I played this game just two years ago, going into not knowing anything. I’ve played some of Earthbound when I was younger, and watched a play through of Mother 3. Even though there is not much to the story and gameplay, I’m surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Hearing the opening screen and 8 melodies just gives me chills when I listen to them. The game somewhat gives me those 80s movies vibe.

I love EarthBound Beginnings so much, I decided to try to recreate the soundtrack. It might not be the most exciting game with the high encounter rate, but it is a very charming game. And I enjoy every minute of it. :)

This video is lovely! I also enjoyed the song choices you used!!

I love earthbound beginnings as much as I love earthbound. Both are masterpieces in my eyes.

3:05 only switch1e could pull off Peter griffin straight into John Lennon

omg it's always so good to find a new youtube channel, i'm loving yours already!

Just finished playing Mother 25th Anniversary Edition and this was a great video. Went over a lot of things I didn't like about the game but highlighted the reasons I kept playing. Great job!

Really enjoyed the video! Such good production and editing. I stopped playing around Mother around the graveyard section just cause I got too busy, this makes me wanna plug in my wii u again

such a good video, it praises its high points but also criticises the low points

People always talk about the "hardcore grind" of this game, but honestly, there's exactly 2 points where I'd agree with you that grinding is probably nice 1. Getting Ninten to about LV4 or 5 to properly start to explore Podunk (the starting town) 2. Leveling Lloyd and Anna to be closer to Ninten's level, since they're at level 1 (Can kill Ninten to do so without buffing him if you want) If you simply walk to most places and do most things and fight most battles you encounter, you'll naturally be at level ~26-29 by the time you get to Mt. Itoi, and by that point Anna has access to Power Shield, which reflects all damage (except from the final boss), PSI Freeze Gamma, which drops enemies to 1HP, and Lifeup Pi, which heals everyone at once. A much less obvious thing that also helps insanely is getting the TWO Franklin Badges in the game - One for answering Pippi's questions correctly when you find her at the beginning of the game, and one in the godforsaken Duncan's Factory (which I agree is ass). The Franklin Badges directly reflect Beam Gamma (The Fuck You spell), and turn it into a "No, Fuck YOU" spell. You never get a third one, so your third party member (probably Lloyd) is just doomed if they get hit by it, but SuprHealing + PSI Magnet can let you recover easily. Take this all with a grain of salt, as I'm definitely one of those older gamers that enjoy old RPGs

I actually enjoy beginnings. Not knowing where the melodies are without a guide is frustrating but otherwise it reminds me of first generation pokemon games. Go from town to town. Turn based combat. Buy items to aid you. Even the sprite and art design are very reminiscent of those games to me

Can't wait for this!

21:15 is easily accomplishable if you frequently go back to your mom for your favorite food, and once you’re level 4 (shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes) it’s easy to make it to podunk. Phenomenal video btw!

As somebody who failed to reach Podunk before putting the game down, while absolutely adoring EarthBound / Mother 3, I sympathise with your struggle. Loved the video, though; the effort that went in here is incredible, as well as the considered thought you put into how to actually assess the game. Definitely subscribing!

Been listening to a ton of Mother soundtracks and I came across this video. Amazing stuff. Thank you.

another great video from the king

Honestly, this video opened my eyes as to what a Earthbound Beginning's "remake" would do for Nintendo. They would just need to fix the issues as mentioned in the video (it would be nice if they remade it similar to the style of Link's Awakening for Switch imo) and this would be a nice way to get something Earthbound related on Switch. The pricing might be a whole different story though (hopefully not).

A day when switch1e uploads is a good day

As someone who is an earthbound fan, Respect for the roast

Hi i just discovered this video because well i'm currently searching for mother 1 content Honestly my experience with mother 1 is kinda simple: i'm not yet an earthbound or mother 3 fan, but i decided to try and play mother 1 blind, 3 times now. I just gave up because the battles were that frustrating, but i was still curious about it and what it had to offer, so i watched a walkthrough. And i really, really loved it. Idk why but, seeing it be played was so enjoyable, discovering the nice weirdness of its story, of its interactions, of its characters, i just love it. It has a lot of things and tries a lot of things and i love it. Thanks for the video, very cool, i'll go try earthbound now.

there is something about mother that makes it so lovable regardless of its flaws. im not really a fan of old school rpgs or many rpgs in general but this series has a charm to it that just makes me adore playing them. i agree with what you said about the game, the overworld is too big and the encounter rate is painful, but the npcs, the characters, and the final battle really makes the game worth playing. also, incase you didn't know, in magicant you can buy something called the "repel ring" for i believe $160 which will limit encounters for a little bit and give a break from the tedious battles. and if ana is level 9-10 she can cast psi shield beta in the final battle which will make all damage halved so you can beat the game without having to grind to high levels for the end :)

Nice use of Citizens of Earth music in the outro. That was a fun if somewhat flawed game.

Every comment about this game is so true though, like how the biggest challenge in the game is getting from your house to the first town, it’s so true

The thumbnail is beautiful and so is the video itself Keep it up😎👍

I really love this game so much. Something about the atmosphere is so enchanting and nostalgic. The soundtrack is so beautiful, and I love the simpler story. Mother 1 may be jankier than sin, but I love it to DEATH. Maybe more than Earthbound, honestly. But definitely not more than 3.

So I wanted to address the difficulty of the beginning of the game. I just completed this recently, and grinding for sure is needed at many points of the game including the beginning. I played this on the Nintendo Switch online, not sure how much has been changed from this version compared to the one you played through. One thing you didn't mention was back at the house. One of your sisters gives you Orange juice, and you can keep talking to her and get more until your maxed out. Doing that in combination of grinding a little bit in the basement before leaving the house, will really make the trek to Podunk much more manageable. One thing I noticed that both in Mother and Earthbound, both games seem much harder in the early phases. Before you get more characters to attack and absorb damage. Once you get those characters, (and level them up to something useful) it gets easier. In many people's 1st playthroughs, Peaceful rest valley was a real challenge.

I like to interpret the melodies as The Golden Ratio from SBR. It's exclusive tones of music that can be found anywhere, but it has to be recognized by skilled people. This explains the bonkers locations the melodies are found in.

I bought Earthbound Beginnings on Wii U because I knew the eShop was closing down and I was getting everything I had even a passing interest in, but I knew absolutely nothing about it other than the fact that it was pretty much a more primitive version of Earthbound. This video really opened my eyes to what it is and I really appreciate that. Great vid!

when i play simplistic old games like mother 1, i feel inspired because i’m having such fun with this game that would be trivial, technically speaking, to make on modern hardware. i could _genuinely_ make a game like this and bring someone joy with it.

This pic goes hard, feel free to set as desktop background.

I just finished Mother 1, and you really summarized my mixed feelings on it very well. To put it simply, I absolutely loved it, but I don't think I'll play it again. I think it was worth it, even though I've never played similar older RPGs. The ending was also wonderful and made the experience feel complete in a way.

Really good timing

i finally beat Mother, now i can finally FINALLY watch this video

I really love Earthbound Beginnings (though I know it more as Earthbound Zero or "Mother 1"), so much so that it's one of my favorite video games along with Mother 3. I'm really glad you took the time to talk about it, as it's often overlooked in favor of its successors. It's far from perfect, but one thing I think it does well is by having a very compelling atmosphere or "vibe." There's a sense of melancholic anemoia whenever I play. The map and its sense of scale is a big reason for this for me - I have a better sense of being a kid on a continent-trotting adventure than in Earthbound and Mother 3. That said, I've never played this game as intended. I really can't argue with you in regards to the gameplay. It's brutal, it's jank, it's downright broken. I highly discourage anyone from playing this game without a mod of some sort - it's really not worth it. Even if you're an ardent believer of playing games as vanilla as possible, doing so with Mother causes more harm than good. Honestly, I don't even think a guide is enough. I highly recommend newcomers to play this on GBA with a translation patch so they can utilize the easy ring. It doesn't make the game a walk in the park, (especially in the late game, you'll still need to rise and grind) but it makes it a lot more manageable and allows you to focus on the atmosphere that's so compelling to me.

You deserve far more subscribers than you have I mean that whole-heartedly

I LOVED playing MOTHER 25th Anniversary Edition as my first MOTHER game, so I guess I technically played a remake of this game! It left a good impression, honestly, but I don't exactly recommend it to my friends who have less patience for oldgamey bs

Actually goated content

congrats on this vid poppin off bro, u deserve it hope there's a universe where u can make this vid about the official mother 3 west release someday

The king has returned

Didn’t think I would listen to “Chocolate Matter” by Sweet Trip in a Mother video, but it was certainly a pleasant surprise. Great video, man! And great taste in music 😌

20:00 okay being a Mother, and Built to Spill fan. Why didn’t I have you as a friend in high school 😭

Thanks for the video.

Just another good video tbh. I know you've expressed some annoyance on twitter with the algorithm and stuff and I totally feel your pain, but I hope you don't let that stop you and that you continue to put good stuff out there.

Swag video switch1e. Keep it up!

That commercial was amazing

Lloyd is the embodiment of the quiet kid

love this!! the little skits inbetween were cute and funny

I played Earthbound for the first time in 1999. I had downloaded an emulator for the first time and was going through and playing all my favorite snes games when I saw Earthbound, which I had never heard of. I remember falling in love with it within the first 10 minutes of the game, I couldn’t believe I had never heard of it. I remember playing a few minutes of Zero, but didn’t really give it a chance. There was a company called Time Walk that use to put out quality reproduction carts who did a release of Earthbound Zero. I bought it and have been a fan of the game ever since.

I don't even play about mother but I love your channel so much I will watch anything you post 🤘

I disagree that the beginning is the worst, later on gets so monotonous. after the robot dies, you can be wiped out over and over having to make your way back again and again

I remember the first time I ever played mother I got to Duncan’s factory and then quit bc that thing was too confusing for me as a child 💀💀 came back to it years later and finished my original save file tho lmao

hold up, earthbound 0 is on nes, so if they called the character on the nintendo entertain system game ninten, does that mean ness' name is ness because its a play on snes? 😭

I really enjoyed that showcase, that was hilarious. Why are MOTHER fans so gorgeous...

Judging by the thumbnail, CRY ABOUT IT NINTEN. CRY ABOUT IT.

commenting for the algorithm yay also nice video! i love your work. mother 3 is my favourite game of all time but ive never played 1 or 2 (and dont know if i have the patience to so i like just watching videos talking about them instead). I remember trying to play mother when those mini nintendo consoles came out and found it impossible because the enemies at the start were way too strong lol

That was a good point about Pong.

Back a month later after this came back through Nintendo switch online

29:57 the guitarist in magicant tells you where to find the melodies, that's how i finded them (srry for my english)

yet another giant switchie W

Mother is archaic and was the last mother Game I played, but this game hit me in a different way from behind to end, I was addicted, and though needs a remake, it holds a special place in my heart, and I think it’s the best NES RPG