Time to beat: 30 hours Availability: Nintendo Switch Online (download the JP app through a Japanese account), Super Famicom Walkthrough:English| Japanese
A turn-based JRPG and sequel to then-Japan-only Earthbound Beginnings (1989) in which Ness, a young boy living in a land based on the USA, leaves home to go on an adventure through strange locations, get to know quirky characters and defeat an unknowable alien threat called Giygas while facing up to the realities of growing up and becoming familiar with the real world.
Schedule
Week
Date
Week 1
Date TBD
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Kept it pretty much to the template (thanks again for that!). Excited to do this. Thoughts on my mind right now:
Iāve been checking video playthroughs for rough ideas of how long sections will be to mixed results. Itās a shame most in Japanese that I can find are streams and tend to have somewhat arbitrary cutoffs. Found some that break at somewhat more reasonable points between videos, but I still donāt think they necessarily always quite work as stopping points for us (with actual save point access and whatnot). I think what Iām going to have to do is refer to videos/guides, whichever to get a broad idea (reminder) of how things are segmented, play for myself sometime before itās time to post the thread, and use some of my own judgment in splitting segments. In theory the guides for example I posted ā one has about 50 sections, the other just under 25. In that way in theory I might be able to do two from the first or one from the second per week and have it basically nicely paced for a game that howlongtobeat says is ~30 hours longā¦ but I just canāt blindly trust that sections are going to be evenly paced in real world time. One of the video series I was looking at with overall decent stopping points seems to take him only about 15 hours surprisingly; I havenāt had the time to really watch to see if heās editing things out or just a very fast player.
So we might have a very rough guess at the total club length but I think I might not be able to give a truly specific schedule until we get a good ways into the game and I can see how segments have worked out relative to how they are presenting in guides / online playthroughs. Itās gonna require some work and especially consistency on my part to get things ready in time, but I think itāll be manageable barring no big disruptive events on my side. I have sort of a general feeling for what length weeks people tend to be ok with from the several game clubs Iāve been in up to now, I think.
I might switch to starting around Friday like some clubs do here rather than Mondays because the week days are much more predictable for me than weekends and I think itāll make me more consistent, but thatās a small thing.
I have a few little outside media pieces Iām excited to share; this wonāt be Final Fantasy club level of knowledge and prep but the players guides (donāt go spoil it!) are really fun supplemental material.
Happy you all decided to go with my choice again; I really hope people like this game. My memories are hazy because itās been several years but, as I said when nominating it, I hold it as one of my favorite games ever (feel free to complain if you have issues with it though too lol, I wonāt take it personally).
Time to break my self-pledge to not join more weekly game clubs. I was planning to break it once yāall at the final fantasy club got to FF4 anyway.
I played and enjoyed the English version, Earthbound, when I was a kid but never got around to finishing for some reason. Memory too fuzzy. Big thanks @Daisoujou for proposing and running the club, Iām really looking forward to getting started
Sure did, week 2 coming up soon. I could really use more hours as well
Like fuzzy pickles? Seems thatās not the phrase in Japanese, too bad, haha.
Will be glad to have you
Iāve always been so annoyed that I know Iām so clearly a full 8 hours kind of person. If I dip lower, even 7, I feel so noticeably worse. Jealous of anyone on the lower end of that spectrum.
Given that this is a game of a certain vintage, I thought it would probably be a good idea to check the manual to see if thereās anything I need to know ahead of time because itās probably best not to count on the game itself to teach the mechanics (thatās what manuals were for)
Thanks for sharing! The big unique thing is the scrolling health ā basically when you take a big hit your health doesnāt drop all at once but sort of ticks down, and you can interrupt that by finishing the fight sooner. I think healing early should intercept and help as well, but the manual only mentions finishing the fight and itās possible Iāll end up mixing together my memories of Mother 3 systems. Iāll see when I get my hands back on this game. I remember feeling like it was more important in Mother 3 than here overall.
I donāt recall too much being super unusual otherwise, though you do need to know what certain party members want to do.
The game does have one of those basic systems for initiating fights where thereās neutral for meeting enemies face on, and advantage for touching them in the back with disadvantage if they contact your back. People will probably be happy to learn this is one of the earliest instances (maybe the first? I assume thatās unlikely but I have no idea who wouldāve done it earlier) of monsters sufficiently weaker than you all running away and if you chase them down you instantly defeat them without a fight.
By the way, weāll see if itās after a break or something, but we simply have to do Mother 3 sometime after this too
Iād like to play Mother 1 as well, and already intended to someday myself. Definitely wouldnāt say no to having company. Despite my more recent desire to want to see series in order all the time, Iāve already played 2 and 3 so no going back and I figured I had to jump to 2 for wider appeal and because itāll likely do a much nicer job really selling people on the joy of this series. Weāll work that out later
Ah Iām very excited this game won the poll! I have started it before, but I donāt think I ever even got past Onett haha. But! I have played Mother 3 (the fan translation) and I LOVE Mother 3 I know I will probably love Mother 2 as well, I just havenāt done the deed of actually playing it haha. So thank you @Daisoujou !!
Thank you also for starting on the task of how to sort out the stopping points
Game Difficulty
I think that sounds very reasonable!! Maybe Iām in the minority since I havenāt played a ton of RPGs, but I was thinking about game difficulty as well. Itāll probably be totally different from ććÆ (obviously), and that might also affect the schedule/how much we can do in a week. So I think not worrying about nailing down the schedule 1000% makes sense :)) Maybe we would have a feel for and an opinion on pacing after the first few weeks!
I remember after my brother beat Mother 2 (out of everyone I know heās the most gamer and is my personal search engine for video game topics haha) he loved the game, but suggested I not feel bad using/needing a guide in some spots. So I feel like this will be a good one to do in a club where we can help each other out!!
Hehehe
WAHHH, yes please!! I would love to replay it, and experience it with the original Japanese!!
I would also be interested in Mother 1
Edit: Iām tired now and only after posting expecting you to know what I meant about later game struggles I realized you said you didnāt play far into this game. Ignore me lol
Iāll just say the game definitely had parts that felt to me like significant difficulty spikes here and there, and as I remember it one is pretty early so that scares me a little. All the same I think stocking up on certain items smoothed it out so hopefully I can help people get through.
I mean Iām half kidding; itās your life, but I was definitely planning to share bits from it when theyāre relevant which will be safest for anyone not wanting to walk into spoilers
Really tempted to follow along with this by reading through Legend of Localizationās book about Earthbound, shipping would be a bit pricey butā¦ Maybe as an early birthday presentā¦ Umm
Iām visiting my mother for Easter, sadly have no room for my turntable and record collection in my tiny apartment. Just wanted to share a photo of one I got years ago:
Hi yaāll nice to meet the club, Iām just finding about game clubs on here now and am pleasantly surprised! I loved Mother 3 so Iām excited to get into Mother 2, it sounds like a lot of fun
Speaking of Legends of Localization I read the Undertale one and thought it was really well done so Iām probably going to end up wanting the Earthbound one after weāre done lol
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