🍔 Mother 2 / Earthbound (Game Club) - Week 2

[ChristopherFritz]

Hi all. I’m stepping in for @Daisoujou with Week 2’s thread. I’ve tried to capture the look and feel of Week 1’s thread.

Welcome to Week 2 of Mother 2 Club

Home Thread | Game Club

I hope the pacing is to everyone’s liking. Once you hit Twoson, you’re one battle away from this week’s end. There’s much dialogue to be had by exploring, so take your time and get to know the locals a bit. If you’re pressed for time, I’ve included a list of sights at the very bottom of the post.

Week 2	May 8th
Last Week	Week 1
Start Point	Visit the Onett Mayor
End Point	Explore Twoson and meet at the park
Next Week	Week 3

A guide to this week (spoilers) 🐜 🍄 🧢

After Frank’s defeat, he said the mayor has the key to the locked shack that blocks the entrance to Giant Step.

Make your way to City Hall for the key, then pass through the shack and head into the cave behind it in search of your first fated destination, Giant Step. If you’re carrying any cash, you may wish to stop by an ATM along the way to store it.

Tip: Enemies are randomly generated when you transition from one screen to another. If you enter a section of the cave with more enemies than you want to take on at once, step back to the previous room and then immediately return for a reroll. If you get lucky, you may even find the section empty. But don’t forget, you need those battles to level up.

If you're not used to RPG's and find yourself getting lost in the cave, here's a map.

Essentially, inner caves lead to presents and ropes lead to progression.

I won’t spoil what waits for you at the end of the cave (even though the old man at City Hall already did if you spoke to him), but this boss makes Frank and his robot seem like a mini-boss. If you lose, stop by the ATM to pull out some cash and buy some food, then fight your way back through the cave and aim to level up along the way. I recommend saving your PSI for the boss battle, but if you see a Magic Butterfly, take the opportunity to use healing PSI, then refill your PP.

After visiting Giant Step, head back through the cave and speak to the friendly police officer outside. Take the officer up on his invite and head down to the police station. Spend some time hanging out with the officers, and you’ll get permission to leave town heading south.

Giant Step boss battle tips:

• The summoned Ant Ant Black enemies will heal the Giant Ant. Defeat them first.
• If Ness is struck by a life-ending critical hit (「かいしんのいちげき！！」), try to heal before Ness’s HP reaches 0 to keep in the battle.

General tips:

• Remember: The L shoulder button is context-sensitive, properly selecting whether to check, talk, etc., based on what’s in front of Ness.
• As with Onett, Twoson’s hotel has a black phone for free calls, and the drug store has a payphone. Give Mom a call sometime.
• The ATM is your friend. Deposit any spare cash for safety, or face losing half of it if Ness goes down in battle.
• As Ness levels up, hotels will start to look cost-effective to HP. If you’re also out of PP and don’t see a magic butterfly nearby, it may be time to book a room for the night. (I recommend it even if Ness isn’t low on HP.)
• Twoson’s drug store sells different equipment from Onett. Stop by and check it out!
• The doctor and healer in the hospital cure two different types of conditions. You’ll find the healer useful if Ness is afflicted by a mushroom on his head, but the nurse still won’t be needed just yet.

Walkthrough: English | Japanese

Script (with kanji!): Script

Participation

Will you be joining us this week?

• Yes, I’m playing along
• I’m still playing but haven’t reached this point yet
• I’m just here for the discussion
• I’m playing after the club has ended

Set this thread to “Watching” to get updates

---

Fun Stuff

There’s a lot to see and do while in Twoson. Check the strategy for a full guide (with full spoilers), but here’s a sampling of what awaits

Twoson travel and shopping guide (light spoilers)

Cast List (Can you find them all?)

Sprite	Character
	穴あな抜ぬけネズミ
	someone’s mother
	マッハピザ employee
	サイクルショップ employee
	Sergeant Baracus???
	アップルキッド
	オレンジキッド
	トンチキ

This week's monsters (spoilers)

You might encounter an extra one or two if you travel far enough south. I hadn’t yet fully explored to remind myself which enemies show up where when editing the images.

Short on time, but still want to hit the big sights?

Here are a few spots to be sure to visit.

• Cycle Shop
• Chaos Theater
• Polestar Preschool
• Bus Stop
• Mach Pizza Shop
• Orange Kid and Apple Kid
• Flea Market in the Park

Bonus things to do in Twoson

Via the English walkthrough linked above:

• Stay at the hotel and (spoiler).
• Talk to the guy sitting at the table at the hotel until he (spoiler).
• Be sure to get a bike from the bicycle shop.
• Call your mom if you haven’t yet! Calling her will cure homesickness.
• Visit Mach Pizza to get the delivery number. Now you can order pizza wherever you go!
• Buy the Copper Bracelet in [the park].
• Get the Teddy Bear from Paula’s house.
• Make sure you buy the For Sale Sign in [the park]! Its usefulness makes up for the price.
• Buy fresh eggs, wait for them to turn into chickens, then sell them for a nice $98 profit each!

[Denec]

So this week felt kinda… lonely? Like when you are absent from school for some reason and there is no one to play with since all of your friends are at school? Despite the general mood, even some npc jokes that if you feel homesick you should call your parents. And all the small talk with the Twoson folks made it more obvious that you are some kind of an observer, a stranger. Although you can buy a teddy bear which would follow you, it would only make matters worse since it’s not really alive…

[VikingSchism]

Managed to tear myself away from Slay the Spire 2 for long enough to get through this week

Week 2

Ok yeah this game is tough - the cave is particularly gruelling. The ぐれたネズミ enemies have a really high crit rate it feels, because they were constantly hitting crits on me. And 18 damage is a lot when your max HP is like 90. That’s basically fifth of your total HP. And there’s a limit to the amount of burgers you can stuff in your pockets. The ants were the worst, though. They can call for backup and heal as well as hitting for nearly 20 damage without crits. This means fights with them can spiral very quickly (especially if you fail to run) so I did rack up a few deaths here. Once I got the うちゅうα skill that targets all enemies the ants got a lot less scary (still, it uses 10PP so not something to use lightly). But there’s a brief interstitial where you exit the cave and re-enter, and I found that there’s always a butterfly when you exit so I just used that to fully recover (use my PSI healing, and then use the butterfly) and do a light amount of grinding to get to the next level.

The ant boss fell on my first attempt (thank goodness, did not want to have to do the trek again) and got me another level up, so that when I went back through the cave most of the enemies were running away. Didn’t stop me from trying to get a few cheeky back attacks for some easy XP. The music that plays during the boss fight was something I recognised from various memes but I didn’t know it came from Mother 2. Was a fun moment of realisation when I heard that off-kilter beat

Then there was the fight with the police officers, or I should say fights. The normal officers weren’t too bad and I did level up partway through the sequence (unlocking the shield ability). But I died to a very unlucky crit in the fight against ストロング so I had to redo the entire sequence. Second time was the charm though and the shield ability helped probably

The road to ツーソン wasn’t too bad. The mushrooms did get me, so I had fun dealing with the whacky controls and スネス not targeting the enemy I told him to. But once I got to ツーソン I made a beeline for the hospital and found out that you can sell the mushroom to the healer for $50. Result. Then I got accosted by a hippie and died and my last save was at the hotel in オネット so I had to redo the trek to ツーソン. I immediately saved at the hotel there and must remember to always be saving going forwards

Anyway, I had an explore around ツーソン and had fun with the bike. Got some new gear and fought トンチキ and also got the teddy bear from ポーラ’s room. Very funny that you can’t ride the bike if you have the teddy bear following you

Also is this a reference to the band The Greatful Dead? Feels like a very random name otherwise. I didn’t know Hirohiko Araki wrote this game /j

[Daisoujou]

Hey wanted to pop in and say I think you did a fantastic job with this thread, thanks so much.

There was definitely no way I could’ve managed this, I pretty much went through hell. I think I’m finally slowly recovering now that I’m a few days off the pills that eat you alive. Hoping to continue in the next day or two and actually play this week for myself.

[ChristopherFritz]

If you find you’d like me to do the week 3 thread, don’t hesitate to say so. (But I really need to get to playing this week’s material as well. I did the battling, so now I need to go around talking to everyone, or else why even play in Japanese?)

[awesometownrocks]

I’ve got a lot to say this week but first things first, thanks @ChristopherFritz for such a detailed week and @Daisoujou for setting such an informative precedent!

Say cheese sandwich

Turns out this week started not after defeating the giant ant like I thought, but after defeating that Frankystein robot oops. I accidentally heard of Giant Step beforehand but didn’t want to reveal the spoiler so when I saw it my brain immediately jumped to “Oh yeah stop after Giant Step” lol, now I’ll be more on the ball because I was wondering why everyone was finishing so fast. I’m starting to notice that the majority of the dialogue feels like it’s just from talking to lots of people in big towns. Even though a lot of it is technically optional and you can get on with the main story whenever you like, I feel like it’s still a little bit of the experience though. For example, from Giant Step to leaving Onett to exploring Twoson, when you take away the town exploration most of this week was just fighting through to where you need to go next. And here’s how it went

I learned PK Bike! That’s such a fun use from the survey at the beginning, now I got a motorcycle attack! I edited this out of my post from last week after I realized I got too far ahead and probably nobody reached it if they haven’t been to Giant Step yet. Some of the enemies are dang tough at first and I too was no match for the ants. I kept on missing and more and more kept on coming. But after some level ups, I realized how this game has intermittently massive gains. It’s satisfying to be underleveled but then suddenly and exponentially gain massive amounts of exp and increased stats

That was until I thought I was plenty strong from the giant ant and realized I was underleveled so it was back to the cave for me, I wasn’t expecting a Superman name drop either.

Back in the cave the fast exp from the slugs is all well and good, but I wasn’t expecting 6 of them which is quite scary, it’s a good thing that there’s now a move that targets all of them!

After clearing the blockade and hearing about multiple town maps being accessible through the library, I wasn’t sure if Twoson had a potential library so I went back to the Onett one and realized I’m a little bit overdue

I also saw the guy who mentioned giving your parents a call, it’s handy how he’s right next to the telephone. Last week somebody mentioned it’s funny how the mom is just fine with Ness going out in the middle of the night, and I just thought she was unconcerned and he’s independent, I didn’t think she’d go so far to deliberately trick his teacher lol

I still have yet to figure out if I should invest in the Apple and Orange Kid’s inventions, and also I noticed the man in the hospital that removes status conditions also had 3 options but I didn’t look into them yet. Perhaps they’re in this week’s briefing though, I just like partially reading them and then coming back to them.

Oh yeah and I came across some ketchup too and thought it’d go great with some of the fries I had, checking them even hinted at that, but I couldn’t figure out how to combine them. But then I noticed there’s some more toppings at that park market with the same idea, so I think it’ll be a mechanic later and I suspect how it might be done

[Daisoujou]

@awesometownrocks

I’m starting to notice that the majority of the dialogue feels like it’s just from talking to lots of people in big towns. Even though a lot of it is technically optional and you can get on with the main story whenever you like, I feel like it’s still a little bit of the experience though.

Yeah I think you’re right there, as I recall it while there are definitely necessary interactions within towns, the necessary scenes are a little light but the world is populated with a lot you can explore and talk to.

Going by my old memories again, Mother 3 goes for a different structure where there’s much more linear storytelling happening the way a later Final Fantasy or something might move you between events a little more directly.

@ChristopherFritz

If you find you’d like me to do the week 3 thread, don’t hesitate to say so.

Thanks. I am hopefully finally starting to trend upwards but if you’re comfortable continuing I expect to need to continue to sit out for at least that week at minimum. I’m still quite exhausted and pretty on and off for how exactly I feel.

[ChristopherFritz]

@Daisoujou

but if you’re comfortable continuing

Sure thing. I’ll aim to finish up this week’s gameplay today, spec out week 3 after work tomorrow, and finalize it in time for posting the day after.

[simias]

Am I skillchecked or is this cave actually hard? I died twice already…

[VikingSchism]

Leaning towards it’s just hard

The ネズミ enemies have a super high crit rate, and the ants can cause fights to spiral quickly by calling backup, healing themselves, and just hitting really hard. Your healing and crowd control capabilities are limited so yeah it’s tough. It’ll get a bit more manageable once you get to a certain level, but still tricky

[simias]

Yeah that’s exactly what killed me twice, having to deal with アリ or アリ + ネズミ. Some encounters are really easy but then if you’re a bit unlucky…

[simias]

I just noticed that items have explanations in the menu. That helps a lot…

[Daisoujou]

This area is notoriously a little tricky. For my playthroughs this has never been the specific bottleneck, but I think what happens is I get unlucky with last week’s boss, get pretty serious about a little grinding and preparation, and then breeze through the cave to hit walls elsewhere. My personal hardest roadblock when I first played was, if I recall correctly, next week… but I do think stocking up on a particular item made a huge difference so we’ll see when we get there. There is another notorious part later that I remember surviving through ok so I guess it’s a little different for everyone, but yes, the game has teeth for sure.

A quick gameplay (not combat) tip for everyone

By this week you’ll probably be feeling the inventory space squeeze. This is, unfortunately for a lot of you I’m sure, one of those inventory juggling games. It’s not always as bad as it looks right now because other party members get their own inventories, but it is unfortunate that the maps and key items eat into our slots. I think by Twoson the game really wants to encourage you to start using the express (I forget the exact name) by phone, which is an item bank to store things you don’t need immediately.

It’s not the most convenient system because you have to call, wait for them to arrive, pay a little, and they’re even limited to taking 3 items at a time, but I do respect how much this game is committed to making you go through those little extra steps to make the world feel more real.

You’re likely to find some things in Twoson you don’t need right now, especially if you get the broken machine (description tells you it’s for Jeff to use), and honestly as cute as it is you probably won’t want to hang onto the bike all that long because you can’t use it with other party members. Check out the R button to ring the bike’s bell though; it is the only thing that button does in the game. Cute little detail.

[simias]

Yeah I loaded up on hanbaagaa and it helped, but I ran out of space.

In the end since you don’t reset when you die I managed to grind a few levels in my failed attempts and made it through eventually.

Now I’m left with the second boss of this week: a new town filled with kana-only Japanese.

[ChristopherFritz]

@simias

or is this cave actually hard?

That’s why I included this bit in the guide:

@ChristopherFritz

Tip: Enemies are randomly generated when you transition from one screen to another. If you enter a section of the cave with more enemies than you want to take on at once, step back to the previous room and then immediately return for a reroll. If you get lucky, you may even find the section empty. But don’t forget, you need those battles to level up.

I’ll shamelessly admit I level-grinded a bit by going back and forth between screen changes and took out enemies one at a time (more if it was an ant) until I reached the point I was strong enough to win without battling.

[simias]

I find this game readable enough that I didn’t use the guide, but at the same time I like to complain so here we are.

[Sasabonsam]

Week 2

Luckily I didn’t have a ton of trouble with the mountain cave but I also took it slow and made sure to stock lots of healing items. The boss fight was a narrow win, and honestly what’s up with that second helper ant?? It got a chance to heal its boss because I didn’t know it was there to target

If I’d known I’d have to walk all the way over to the police station for story reasons anyway, I wouldn’t have lied about reading the たちいりきんし sign But I did, I really am a はんこうてきなガキ.

These towns feel so big, but I think I’ve managed to cover everything important for Twoson. I had a bunch of money so didn’t feel bad investing in apple & orange kid. Also took one look at these guys and thought: “the blues brothers???”

(I looked it up, they really are inspired by the blues brothers)

[ChristopherFritz]

@Sasabonsam

Also took one look at these guys and thought: “the blues brothers???”

Those of us who grew up on the English release may think of those two as the Mario Bros.

[ChristopherFritz]

Week 3
🍔 Mother 2 / Earthbound (Game Club) - Week 3

[awesometownrocks]

@Sasabonsam

If I’d known I’d have to walk all the way over to the police station for story reasons anyway, I wouldn’t have lied about reading the たちいりきんし sign But I did, I really am a はんこうてきなガキ.

Maybe I just forgot about it, but I didn’t notice the sign until the police officer stopped me. And sure, as the player, I can clearly see the sign, but Ness couldn’t since he was on the opposite side of the fence, so I said no