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 Mother 3 has one of the most interesting developments of any game. Originally slated for the Super Famicom before switching to the Nintendo 64DD (and then the Nintendo 64 itself), it was canceled before coming back to life as a GBA game that eventually came out in Japan in 2006, around ten years or so since it started development. Though there was demand for an official translation, the game never got one. However, it did end up getting probably the highest-quality fan translation we'll likely ever see. Translated by professional translator Tomato, the game ended up getting a strong translation and localization that feels just like playing the next "Earthbound" game. This translation will be what I use to show off the game. As for the game itself, Mother 3 is the third game of the series that most US and European gamers know as "Earthbound." The series is unique among jRPGs for its modern-day setting, quirky sense of humor, and surprisingly relatable stories. Mother 3 shifts focus from the grander "save the world" focus of the first two games to instead focus on a family and a few other individuals as they deal with certain events too spoilerish to really talk about. It's more of a personal, darker story than previous games. It's also streamlined its simple battle system to be more accessible while adding a couple features here and there. And of course it keeps the series' odd sense of humor and ramps up the weirdness in the characters and the various foes you fight. This game is certainly one-of-a-kind, and between its reputation and it being somewhat inaccessible in English-speaking countries, I definitely aim to show off just how amazing, goofy, and wonderful this game is to an audience who isn't familiar with the game. Maple Leaf made an excellent narrative LP for the game if you want to check that out. There's also solid LP's for Mother 1 and Earthbound, including a good narrative LP.  NO SPOILERS WHATSOEVER. NO TAGS, NOTHING. Updates will likely be once, sometimes twice a week. You can follow when I update on Twitter, and generally I don't post other stuff so I won't clog up your feeds with whatever stupid bullshit opinions I have that you disagree with.                                       
Mega64 fucked around with this message at 23:52 on May 13, 2015 |
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Jul 20, 2014 22:06
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| # ? Apr 18, 2024 02:01 |
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*Exceptions can be made at my discretion. SPOILERS: Avatars I've made from GIFs for this Let's Play. (Click the settings wheel on the top-right of the GIF area to download) Updated 11/28/14 up to end of Chapter 2. Fan Stuff Variant_Eris takes the discussion of "Mother 3 is the precursor to Pokemon" to its logical conclusion. Variant_Eris posted:
Then Variant_Eris takes the epic "Stone-Sheet-Clippers" face-off to its logical extreme. Variant_Eris posted:
Internet Kraken sums up what the average Onett citizen's thoughts of a roadblock enemy would be like. Internet Kraken posted:I felt like the roadblock needed a more appropriate sprite. Mega64 fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Dec 28, 2014 |
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Jul 20, 2014 22:06
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   The logo itself symbolizes one of the major themes of this game, what with nature and modern technology clashing together awkwardly and all. Also, there's 250 songs in the Sound Player. Expect lots and lots of Tindeck links, as this game's got a great soundtrack.   Like the other two games of the series, we'll start off naming a bunch of stuff. I'll use default names for this run, though this is one of those games where it's more encouraged you use names personal to you to help get more involved in the story.  If you select "Don't care" you'll get the default name for a character. Unlike Earthbound, there's only one such name per character. The blonde boy is Lucas, who most will likely recognize from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He's pretty timid for a protagonist, something the game likes to constantly remind you of. When you name a character and move to the next one, you get this little sound clip that I'm sure Earthbound fans will recognize.    The other boy is Claus, who's the more adventurous and outspoken of the two. The twins' names are anagrams of each other, which is neat.    The cowboy-looking guy is Flint, which is a pretty cowboy name.  According to the Earthbound Wiki, Hinawa's name refers to a matchlock gun, with Flint's referring to a flintlock rifle.  And of course it wouldn't be a Mother game without a faithful canine companion.   Mother 3's default food and thing are a bit more intimate and personal than Earthbound's. Earthbound's favorite thing is more of a battle cry, something that fits Ness pretty well (if you ignore the whole "silent protagonist" thing), while Love better fits the timid, introverted Lucas. Omelets also seem more intimate a food than steaks, being something you're more likely to eat everyday with family to start the day. Or at least that's how I interpret it, you're perfectly welcome to tell me I'm full of poo poo on my analyses. Unlike character names, there's various options for "Don't Care" for favorite food and things. Other food options include Pasta, Gratin, Donuts, Stew, Gelatin, and Rice, all simple staple foods. For favorite thing, there's Home Run, Mach, Top Spec, Mt. Fuji, Camera, and Watering.  Then you get to choose text speed and window color.  The color of your window can significantly affect how you react to this game's story and gameplay. Probably not, though.  And with that, let's begin!    Nowhere Islands  Tazmily Village  Beyond the Sunshine Forest  Home of Alec, Hinawa's Father     Get up so we can play! Get up, already! Hurry up! And now we get control of Lucas.  Due to the smaller screen size of the GBA, the menu is more streamlined from previous games. The menu has Goods, Equipment, Status, and Sleep (use the GBA's Sleep mode to put the game on standby).  We have no gear or skills yet, though that of course will change later on.    The A button will check things. No more menus/L button for that kinda stuff. I'll hold off from showing off every mundane thing at this point, though I'm sure there's lots of neat stuff to look at in our future.  Downstairs, we meet our mother.   Claus has been up for a while, playing with the Dragos.  No way!  Mother 3 may be a more serious title than Earthbound, but it still has that same offbeat humor that makes the series so charming.  Anyway, we have to change our clothes to progress in the story.   Alright, time for some fun!   Welcome to Grandpa's farm! Enjoy the nice music here.   It also wouldn't be a Mother game if we couldn't telepathically talk to animals. These chickens will run away from you until you corner them into a wall, so it takes a bit of effort to talk to them.   And of course we've got sinister pigs because why not.   (All cows, no matter what they're thinking, go, "Moo." It'd be handy to remember that.)And a helpful cow, to boot!   Memories are remembered with other memories, and in turn become memories themselves. If you don't take care to preserve your memories, you'll forget them. So, please tell us frogs your memories of everything so far... That is what people refer to as "saving". Now, then...   Since our dad isn't some rich executive guy that's always at work and never at home, instead we have to settle with talking to frogs to save our game. We'll manage.  Give my regards to the next frog you meet.If we try to move south...   Gotta say, that's one of the better ways I've seen a game roadblock you from going somewhere, and that include Earthbound's literal roadblocks.   Well, today's the day you head back home. I'm gonna miss you guys.This is Hinawa's father and the boys' grandfather, Alec.  Time to see what Claus is up to!  ...Welp.   I've been play-fighting with the Dragos all morning. Pretty sure our choice here doesn't actually change any dialogue.   Lucas still doesn't know how to ram into things yet. And then hold that B Button for a second, then let go. Doing this will let you "dash". And by using this "dash" ability, you can ram into that Drago there! Claus! Show him an example!  Now it's your turn, Lucas! Give it a try! That holds true for anything. Just relax!So our first gameplay challenge of this game is to ram ourselves into a dinosaur.    Gotta say, it's kinda cool how these giant scary-looking creatures are actually very peaceful and docile and actually enjoy kids ramming into them.   We did it!         I'm gonna wipe the floor with all of you! Get in my way and you're in for a world of pain!    Our first battle!  Options are Bash (regular attack), Goods, Guard, and Run Away. Can't run from this fight, so  This game's battle system is pretty much the same as Earthbound's. The main difference is that damage pops up on the battle screen Final Fantasy-style rather than be communicated in text boxes.   The number meter is back, and works the same way as Earthbound's. If you take mortal damage, you've got time until the meter rolls to 0 to heal or end the battle, which will then stop that person from dying. A nice little system that encourages a bit of speed to fix a bad situation.  The one big difference in this game is that by timing A Button presses to the beat of the music, you can do extra damage to enemies. There's plenty of different battle themes to learn the beats to, and it can be tricky to pick up, especially on certain emulators where it doesn't work that well. But it's not a necessary trick needed to beat the game or anything, just a nice little bonus feature that gives you more damage if you learn to master it.    The Mole Cricket's nothing but a tutorial, so you pretty much have to try to lose.   So let's do so!    There's a bit of new dialogue after doing this. Since I did this in an alternate video, this is where I also found out you could ram into people.   Your ram attacks don't work on me, Lucas! Is that all you got? You whippersnappers still have a long ways to go until you can get the best of me!I didn't find this out until right before posting this update, but apparently you can also dash into Hinawa at the beginning.   Free bread! And if we try to leave...  Alright, let's beat this bug up.  But you can challenge me to 100 fights and I'll still kick your butt each and every time!Note: I didn't bother trying to lose 100 times to see if it actually affects anything. So let's go back to the part where I kick the cricket's butt.   If you'd like, I could train you personally sometime. I look forward to seein' you there! ...Bro.   Lunch is ready, everyone. I made you your favorite, boys. Omelets! Ooh! Lunch, lunch! Omelets!!     It's not too tedious or troublesome, so you should talk to frogs as often as you can. Plus, saving is absolutely free.  You saved me some Omelets too, I hope?!-----  Then your favorite is the same as ours? We make a good match! We have to go through the forest to get back, so we'll need to leave early. Don't be silly. I bet the kids could make it here on their own, it's that safe.  -----   quote:Dear Flint,      
Mega64 fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Aug 8, 2014 |
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Jul 20, 2014 22:06
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Always liked the Mother series. Glad to be in on the ground floor for this.
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Jul 20, 2014 22:18
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I don't know whats weirder, the mole crickets that talk and everybody is ok with, or the frogs that display deep philosophical thinking.
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Jul 20, 2014 23:01
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Pixeltendo posted:I don't know whats weirder, the mole crickets that talk and everybody is ok with, or the frogs that display deep philosophical thinking.
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Jul 20, 2014 23:39
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Mother 3 is a fantastic game, though I have only played it the once. Lookin' forward to this one; I'm sure I missed plenty after all.
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Jul 21, 2014 00:04
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Awww yis, been waiting for a Mother 3 LP. Let the weird poo poo commence!
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Jul 21, 2014 00:06
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Prepping to enjoy the acid trip that is any one, of the mother games. I have a number of friends who only know about the series because of my slight obsession with it.
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Jul 21, 2014 00:10
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Ah, I really liked this game, and the fan translators did a fantastic job on it. It's definitely a different flavor of game than Earthbound though.
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Jul 21, 2014 00:14
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I never did beat this game (goddamn Steel Mechorilla) and probably missed a bunch of stuff, so yes, I am looking forward to this!
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Jul 21, 2014 00:33
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This game is the best JRPG ever made, and if you haven't you should totally play along using the fan translation.
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Jul 21, 2014 00:43
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New Mega64 LP? Hype. And it's Mother 3? PK HYPE OMEGA.
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Jul 21, 2014 00:47
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God, that fills me with dread every single time. Like knowing that things are going to go wrong and there's nothing you can do. Also, thanks for having your screenshots be so optimised! Due to stupid fuckers using up all the Internet in my new place, I'm on barely-more-than-dial-up, yet almost every screenshot and GIF loaded completely, quite quickly.
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Jul 21, 2014 00:51
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I'm sorry, I'm already crying.
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Jul 21, 2014 06:01
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Wow, this has a great soundtrack. I will be following this. Also, this update looks like it took a while to put together, with all the different portraits and tindeck links. From one SSLPer to another, I salute your hard work. quote:According to the Earthbound Wiki, Hinawa's name refers to a matchlock gun, with Flint's referring to a flintlock rifle. I prefer thinking that it's a reference to the city of Flint, Michigan.
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Jul 21, 2014 06:18
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This game looks great. The music sounds great. Those gifs are great, please keep doing that.
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Jul 21, 2014 07:29
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sweet a new Mega64 LP, and another Mother 3 LP at that. Maybe this one will go to completion 
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Jul 21, 2014 08:20
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frozentreasure posted:Also, thanks for having your screenshots be so optimised! Due to stupid fuckers using up all the Internet in my new place, I'm on barely-more-than-dial-up, yet almost every screenshot and GIF loaded completely, quite quickly. Part of that is GBA pics being so nice and small in the first place, though OptiPNG still crushed half a MB off the size. Total size of that update was 1.46MB, though that doesn't include a ton of screenshots which I transcribed dialogue from, and of course most of that was GIFs. Might as well be as efficient as I can with size though. gatz posted:Also, this update looks like it took a while to put together, with all the different portraits and tindeck links. From one SSLPer to another, I salute your hard work. Yeah, considering the 250 songs from a soundtrack I'm not nearly as familiar with (only played through this game once) and a huge variety of NPCs (many of the generic ones are named to boot), there's been a lot more uploading than the usual LP.
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Jul 21, 2014 09:36
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Mega64 posted:(only played through this game once) Don't forget to talk to everyone each time you return to town through the game, if you aren't aware. I'll talk more about it when we get there.
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Jul 21, 2014 10:25
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The Mother series always had a three-word catchphrase: Strange, Funny, Heartrending. If Mother 2/Earthbound was closer to the first two words, this game is closer to that last word. Let's get this started 
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Jul 21, 2014 10:28
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Oh boy, I've always wanted to see a full LP of this. Here's hoping this one actually gets there! I'm also going to have to tell Leave that the very first update used . Good on ya, Mega.
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Jul 21, 2014 10:52
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Yapping Eevee posted:I'm also going to have to tell Leave that the very first update used I miss that guy and his LPs. Good to hear there's people who kept in touch with him.
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Jul 21, 2014 13:27
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I played through this game in Japanese years ago, before the fan translation was completed, so I could improve my Japanese skills. And to play the sequel to the game I played ten million times, of course. Looking forward to the LP.
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Jul 21, 2014 13:52
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I have no idea what I'm in store for, but oh lordy, this looks fun! Of course I've played Earthbound (Mother2) and some of Mother 1 on Emulator. Everything I know about Mother3 from Clan Of the Grey Wolf's history episode.
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Jul 21, 2014 14:36
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Very excited for this.
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Jul 21, 2014 21:13
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While my mother doesn't play that many games barring anything on the NES and Animal Crossin), I can happily say Mother 3 was a game that she spent an entire week playing through completion. Definitely a game that can proudly say it has a wide appeal. I really hope you gif the hell out of this, since Mother 3's animations are top notch. There's two scenes I can think of specifically that show it off the most.
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Jul 21, 2014 21:46
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This game does a lot to improve Earthbound's combat, but it's really frustrating how slooooowly the game's opening goes. It does discourage grinding, which I imagine is part of the point, but you have a couple chapters before you really have a party together and are exploring relatively freely. Once it gets going it gets going really good though. On a keyboard, I never could get the timed hits right...sorta wish this game gets a VC port to the Wii U sometime soon.
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Jul 21, 2014 21:59
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Is this why you only sorta wish Mother 3 gets a port?
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Jul 21, 2014 22:12
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Gosh, just listening to this track makes me want to play this game again.
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Jul 21, 2014 23:22
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Oh man, this game's soundtrack. I feel like every track in this game is going to be quoted like this by the end of the game. Let's see if my prediction is right!
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Jul 22, 2014 00:30
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A massive amount of chopped onions just appeared in my living room.
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Jul 22, 2014 01:12
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I liked Earthbound's lighthearted feel more thank Mother 3's constant making GBS threads on the protagonist. Part of the reason I love Earthbound so much is that it is mostly upbeat and hopeful, while Mother 3 will just be a huge soppy fest from beginning to end and it doesn't ever seem to get better.
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Jul 22, 2014 01:45
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How Rude posted:I liked Earthbound's lighthearted feel more thank Mother 3's constant making GBS threads on the protagonist. Part of the reason I love Earthbound so much is that it is mostly upbeat and hopeful, while Mother 3 will just be a huge soppy fest from beginning to end and it doesn't ever seem to get better. This is the reason Doug Dinsdale doesn't like Mother 3 that much; it piles on the sadness so much that it's pretty offputting to the people who loved Earthbound for it's upbeat tone.
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Jul 22, 2014 01:57
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Mega64, I just now noticed you're using the remastered version of the soundtrack. Most excellent! For those who don't know, I mean he's using a version where somebody took the ROM, extracted all the sounds as MIDIs, plus a separate soundfont file from the game, and converted them to MP3s, thus avoiding GBA static clouding the tracks. There's actually a couple more steps than that to this kind of conversion, but hey. Lots of GBA music sounds amazing in converted MIDI form compared to what the GBA does to it. (link leads to a comparison video)
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Jul 22, 2014 03:18
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ChaosArgate posted:This is the reason Doug Dinsdale doesn't like Mother 3 that much; it piles on the sadness so much that it's pretty offputting to the people who loved Earthbound for it's upbeat tone.
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Jul 22, 2014 04:10
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Scalding Coffee posted:They should have went further with the tears. It was like the grimdark writer was mostly in control and during his break, the one who knows about the other games, and lighten the mood. That's because during his "break" he was working on Magical Starsign  (which is Earthbound+Phantasy Star and you should play it) I've played Earthbound but I haven't played this. From what I've heard that's pretty shameful on my part, so I'll definitely be following along.
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Jul 22, 2014 04:18
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I've heard the internet gushing over this game a lot. I suppose I'll get to see why that is now.
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Jul 22, 2014 04:48
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By sheer dumb luck I just happen to look around and find this today. And krakentoot gets used immediately. I most definitely approve. I've never been able to sit down and play through this one, so I'm looking forward to it. e: Just because it's my favorite emote that doesn't exist, I'll just toss this in here as well: 
Explosionface fucked around with this message at 06:21 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 06:19
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Mother 3 isn't all dark and depressing. It's still pretty goofy and light-hearted a lot of the time too! I'd agree that I prefer the more upbeat Earthbound myself, though another small reason I'm doing this LP is to see if I may end up liking this game more in the end since there were a few things in this game that really impressed me, including one thing I think this game did the best out of any game I've ever played. But more on that when I get to it.How Ingratiating! posted:Mega64, I just now noticed you're using the remastered version of the soundtrack. Most excellent! For those who don't know, I mean he's using a version where somebody took the ROM, extracted all the sounds as MIDIs, plus a separate soundfont file from the game, and converted them to MP3s, thus avoiding GBA static clouding the tracks. There's actually a couple more steps than that to this kind of conversion, but hey. Lots of GBA music sounds amazing in converted MIDI form compared to what the GBA does to it. (link leads to a comparison video) It definitely sounds nicer than the audio in the GBA version, and I appreciate all the work that went into it, so I might as well show it off. There's also a ton of such audio included, from all 250 tracks in the Sound Player to ambient tracks to unusued tracks and a lot more. I'll try to show off as much of it as I can.
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Jul 22, 2014 08:22
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