EarthBound Beginnings: Difference between revisions

| jptrans=Mother

| image=EarthBound Beginnings boxart.png

| caption=EarthBound Beginnings boxart (Nintendo Switch Online)

| other boxart=Mother boxart.png

| other boxart caption=Mother boxart

| system=[[Nintendo Entertainment System| Famicom]]

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{{StrategyWiki|Mother}}

== Plot ==

===Non playable characters===

*'''[[Maria]]''' is Ninten's great grandmother. She and her husband were abducted by aliens in the 1900s. Her consciousness appears in Magicant, where she rules as Queen Mary.

*'''[[George]]''' is Ninten's great grandfather. While abducted by aliens, he studied and stole the knowledge of PSI.

== Gameplay ==

===[[Status ailment]]s===

Status ailments are conditions that hinder the player or an enemy in battle. They can usually be cured with certain items.

== Development ==

Development for the game commenced in the late 80s, after [[Shigesato Itoi]] pitched the idea of a modern-day RPG game to [[Shigeru Miyamoto]]. Beforehand, Itoi was well-known for his copywriting career in Japan, although he habitually played the Nintendo [[Famicom]] to "a degree that most would consider obsession".<ref>[https://shmuplations.com/mother/]</ref> Being asthmatic, he was prone to violent coughing fits whenever he tried to lay down to sleep; so at night, when he woke up with another coughing fit, he would play Miyamoto's {{mw|Super Mario Bros.}} In essence, "Mario saw him through his asthma" since he couldn't call anyone, and because of that, Itoi always felt indebted to Nintendo.<ref>[https://www.1101.com/gccxmother/en/2019-09-14.html]</ref> One day he became an avid fan of Enix's {{wp|Dragon Quest}} franchise. While playing the [https://dragonquest.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon_Quest#Videos first game] late at night, he pondered the changes he would make to the RPG formula if he were in charge, as RPG games at the time primarily consisted of knights and princesses in a fantasy medieval-european setting. While they were flourishing in Japan, he didn't know anything about medieval Europe, and he started to imagine an RPG game set in contemporary times as he found a modern-day setting far more investing and interesting.  

== Release ==

Mother was originally released in Japan for the [[Famicom]] on July 27th, 1989.

On June 14th, 2015, Nintendo announced and released Mother for the Wii U Virtual Console service, in Japanese as well as its first ever English release, under the title '''EarthBound Beginnings'''. While the English version is the same as the unreleased English prototype (minus the copy protection), the Japanese version had several changes from ''Mother 1+2'' backported to it. Notably, the [[Crow]]'s cigarette was removed and a line in [[Twinkle Elementary School]] that mentioned ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Quest_IV Dragon Quest IV]]'' had the reference to that game removed.<ref>[http://earthboundcentral.com/2015/06/japanese-wii-u-mother-has-changes/ EarthBound Central: "Japanese Wii U MOTHER Has Changes"]</ref>

==Reception==

Mother was a commercial success in Japan, receiving the "Silver Hall of Fame" score of 31/40 from ''Weekly Famitsu''. According to a ''Famitsu'' poll, it was considered the 9th best Famicom game and the 38th best game of all time.

EarthBound Beginnings also received strong positive reception in the west, similar to its successor. It was one of the most bought NES games on the Wii U Virtual Console during its lifespan, and was the only NES game with a 5-star rating during the first few months of the release. Critics praised its originality, music, and artstyle, while saying how it "parodies" other more "serious" RPG games such as the Dragon Quest series. Around the time of its initial release, EarthBound Beginnings was the best selling downloadable game on the Wii U in America and Europe, surpassing Splatoon in digital sales<ref>https://earthboundcentral.com/2015/06/earthbound-beginnings-rules-multiple-wii-u-sales-charts/</ref>.

''For the subject's image gallery, see [[Gallery:EarthBound Beginnings]]''

{{Gallery|galleryname=Boxart|color=EBB}}

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{{Gallery|galleryname=Promotional art|color=EBB}}

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{{Gallery|galleryname=Title screens and logos|color=EBB}}

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