I Belive That the Morning Sun s Always Goinnna Shine Again

For the first game in the trilogy, which shares the same Japanese title, go here.

Mother is an Eastern RPG trilogy by Nintendo, the brainchild of Japanese writer and media personality Shigesato Itoi as a personal experiment in the ability of the video game medium to tell a story. Aye, it'due south an auteur game series, and one of the start of its kind, too. It was named for the John Lennon song "Female parent", of whom Itoi is a large fan, and is subject to quite a lot of Championship Drops.

With an eccentric like Itoi at the helm, it'south not a surprise that Mother exemplifies the "Widget Series": the crude-yet-oddly unique art style, the cocky-aware wall breakages, the parodical estimation of modernistic-day Earth (in this case, America... skewed by the perspective of a foreigner exposed to it only through Tv set and movie house), and an emotional roller-coaster of Dadaist humour and tragedy.

The series equally a whole is a chronic victim of No Consign for You, and while it is rather famous now, that may exist more related to, or at least instigated by, its continued presence in the Super Smash Bros. series.

The serial has become a major source of inspiration for indie-produced RPGs with a like offbeat-yet-creepy atmosphere. Notable examples include Undertale, LISA, Yume Nikki, OFF and Space Funeral. Citizens of Globe is some other game influenced by Female parent that focuses more on the parodical mod setting. Oddity started off life every bit a fan fabricated Mother 4 but eventually rebranded to avoid legal bug.

The series consists of the following titles:

• EarthBound Ancestry ^note JP: Mother ; nicknamed EarthBound Zilch until information technology got an official English championship (1989, Family Estimator; 2015, Wii U; 2022, Nintendo Switch): The serial' debut, telling the story of Ninten as he works to uncover his family's connections to an impending conflicting invasion. In that location was never a concrete release outside Nippon; it did get localized by Nintendo of America nether the name Earth Bound and was slated for a 1991 US release, but these plans were shelved later being deemed commercially nonviable. A test cartridge of this localization was eventually discovered by fans and dumped online in 1998. This version was finally officially released outside of Japan every bit a Wii U Virtual Console championship nearly 26 years afterwards its release in Japan. This localization was re-released on the Nintendo Switch in 2022 as a part of Nintendo Switch Online.
• EarthBound (1994) ^annotation JP: Mother 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushū (1994/1995, Super Nintendo Entertainment Arrangement; 2022, Nintendo Switch): The series' merely official international release for the longest time, and thus the one everyone'due south nearly familiar with. The star is Ness, one of the four called heroes destined to combat the Universal Cosmic Destroyer and his impending devastation of the universe. Re-released on the Nintendo Switch in 2022 every bit a function of Nintendo Switch Online.
• Mother i+2 (2003, Game Male child Advance): A Compilation Rerelease of EarthBound Beginnings and EarthBound, released exclusively in Nihon to promote the release of Mother iii, and notably incorporating practically all the modifications of the then-unreleased English localization. Also has a Fan Translation by Clyde Mandelin, the same guy who lead the Mother 3 fan translation projection. However, only the first game was translated; this game's version of EarthBound was left untouched beyond a uncomplicated menu translation, due to a combination of the sheer volume of text in the game, the rather complicated method used to actually brandish said text, and the fact that this particular port was of noticeably bottom quality.
• Mother 3 ^annotation nicknamed EarthBound 2 after the Fourside bulletin in the predecessor (2006, Game Male child Accelerate): The series' credible Grand Finale, featuring a broad Ensemble Cast headed by Lucas, a timid child promoted to investigate the slow corruption of his habitation isle. Again, only released in Nippon, but is the subject of a specially famous and polished Fan Translation spearheaded by Clyde Mandelin.

In addition to games, various obscure pieces of Japan-only spin-off media were released, including a pair of novels based on the offset two games, named Mother -The Original Story- and Female parent two: Giygas Strikes Back which received fan translations in belatedly 2021, and several mangas based on Mother two.

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The Mother trilogy as a whole contains examples of:

• Aborted Arc:
  • The English prototype of Earthbound Ancestry that eventually was released in Japan in the Compilation Rerelease MOTHER 1+2 ends with two Sequel Hooks: Giygas/Giegue promises to the hero Ninten that they will meet once again and in The Stinger, Ninten's male parent calls him to inform that "Something new has come". Neither EarthBound nor Mother 3 address this every bit they accept different chief characters and, in fact, bated from Giygas' origin, those two games are disjointed from the original.
  • During Porky'south last piece of dialogue during the final boss of Earthbound, he'll remark that he will abscond to another era to remember of his next Evil Programme, and will mayhap meet Ness once more. Come Mother iii, and the latter never happens, Porky instead raptures MdAldonuts and the Mr.Saturns, with his whole plan involving an island in a post-apocalyptic Globe. The only time Ness and Porky officially see each other once more is during his boss fight in Super Blast Bros. Brawl, where Ness saves Lucas.
• Action Bomb:
  • EarthBound Beginnings and EarthBound feature treelike enemies that explode or burst into flames when defeated, damaging the unabridged party; in the commencement game, in that location'due south no HP odometer to stave off a potentially fatal accident.
  • All 3 games characteristic an exploding robot enemy that tin can fully heal itself or its allies in 2 variants, with 1 type appearing in The Very Definitely Last Dungeon. Said explosion will kill your partners if you lot don't scroll fast enough.
• Affectionate Parody: Of Dragon Quest, which is natural seeing every bit that is the game that inspired Itoi to dabble in game-writing. However, EarthBound's boxing organisation drifts away from the Dragon Quest clone that is the original.
• Alien Invasion: In EarthBound Ancestry and EarthBound, the main conflict involves an conflicting invasion headed by the Sufficiently Advanced Alien Giegue, or as he'south chosen in the sequel, The Universal Cosmic Destroyer, Giygas.
• The All-American Boy: Both protagonists of the first two games, Ninten and Ness, are practiced-spirited and mettlesome boys from small American (or American-like in the latter'south example) towns with a fondness of baseball game and their mother'south home cooking.
• All in a Row: How the party always travels on the overworld, instead of the supporting protagonists disappearing into the main protagonist's sprite.
• Ambiguous Time Menstruum: All 3 games in the serial make use of this:
  • EarthBound Beginnings was originally set in 1988, but starting from the 1990 English localization and conveying into all afterward releases, this is changed to an ambiguous signal in The '80s. Notwithstanding, since the game doesn't include anything that'd especially date information technology specifically to the late 80'due south in the starting time place, information technology feels closer to 1980 or 1981 than to 1988, aiding the ambiguity in later releases.
  • EarthBound is fix in "199X", and goes out of its way to avoid any particular trends from the decade in order to feel merely as applicable to 1999 equally to 1990. Consequently, the game includes not but elements that'd feel contemporaneous to audiences in the game's initial release year of 1994, simply also elements indicative of the mail service-80's cultural hangover that marked the early 90'southward and fifty-fifty aspects that were phased out by the 1970's, such as rotary phones and unproblematic school-age girls in bows and dresses.
  • Mother 3 takes things a notch further by outright refusing to requite whatsoever particular indicators of a range of years, simply being set an ambiguously long point of fourth dimension after EarthBound, though the modernized Tazmily and New Pork City borrow considerable elements from EarthBound's "199X'' setting as well every bit a few more additions indicative of the pre-smartphone 2000'southward, including cell phones with extendable antennae.
• An Water ice Person: The PK Freeze series of PSI involves psychically conjuring ice to attack enemies.
• Breathing Inanimate Object: Many are animated by the series' villains to attack the party, to the signal of Everything Trying to Impale You levels.
• Arc Words: Even though it is stated merely as the Tag Line of the first game, it can relate to all iii:
• Artifact Title: Mother refers to the fact that Ninten's grandmother, Maria, raised Giegue from infancy, and the lullaby she used to sing him is what ultimately repels Giegue's Alien Invasion. But and then MOTHER 2 lacks an important central mother figure, playing this trope straight. And so Female parent iii averts this trope again, with Lucas'due south Mother, Hinawa, and her death being a major driving strength of the Story for the characters and the events that play out, too as her spirit being very instrumental in the final battle. This was averted with the localized names of the first ii games, EarthBound Ancestry and EarthBound, respectively.
• Fine art-Mode Dissonance: The Mother trilogy is a prime example of this. Who would think such Peanuts-esque looking games would contain stories about how much Parental Abandonment can negatively effect a child, or incorporate one of the most infamous Final Dominate fights in video game history, or tell 1 of the almost heartrending stories in all of video games?
• Attack Reflector: Some of the PSI shielding powers work this way. Enemies sometimes have them too, leading to potentially disastrous results if strong attacks are used against them.
• Badass Adorable: Most of the main characters (especially the younger ones) authorize as this. Those that don't are just plain badass.
• Badass Normal: Any party fellow member without PSI powers compensates with something else, from gadgets like flamethrowers and ray guns, to swords to anything in-betwixt.
• Barrier Warrior: The various shielding PSI in the games, some of which mitigate damage taken, and others which reflect an enemy's attack back at them a sure number of times before the shield wears off.
• Batter Upwards!: Ninten and Ness' most powerful weapons are bats. Lucas trades this for sticks instead, though he can equip a Bat by the endgame.
• Better Than a Blank Bulb: Considering how many RPG cliches it pokes fun at, are y'all surprised?
• Large Bad: Giygas and Porky for the whole serial. In fact, these two are what connect each game to each other: Giygas's defeat in the first game drove him insane and turned him into the monster who we come across in the second, and Porky being manipulated by Giygas and his time travel abuse both make him a recurring antagonist in the second game and the primary villain of the third.
• Black Bead Eyes: A Mother series tradition, though if the 64DD/N64 development period of Mother 3 is whatever indication, this may have been more due to technical pragmatism as opposed to deliberate stylistic choices (annotation that characters such as Ana, Paula, and Lucas in Brawl have blue eyes).
• Blush Sticker: Small, ovular 'blush' cutouts on the cheeks of some of the young, cute characters' sprites and clay models appear often, something else that gives the art style its circular cuteness.
• Bookends:
  • Quite bright, in fact. The major one yous find is Mother 3's title logo, which starts off with a half-wooden and half-chrome design. When the game finally ends, the logo is back to all wooden, with a Earth instead of the chrome O, greatly resembling the logo of the first game.
  • EarthBound Beginnings and EarthBound are opposite numbers in terms of their endings. In the original, Magicant is a figurative representation of Ninten'due south nifty grandmother, Maria, restoring his HP and providing a safe oasis at the toll of halting the game's progression; indeed, it gets easier to visit Magicant (via a Warp Whistle detail), while getting back "on-track" becomes increasingly harder since Magicant's go out spits you dorsum out at the game'due south starting point, like John Cusak flopping into a ditch on the New Jersey Turnpike. Eventually, Maria regains her retentiveness, and Magicant vanishes for good. Yet, in EarthBound, the Playable Epilogue is a one-way rails leading back home; Giygas'due south minions are all gone, you can guide Ness effectually the earth for as long as you please — merely it'll get deadening. There are no new places to explore and nothing left to practice but return to Ness's business firm in Onett.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: The humanoid enemies and some of the animal enemies in the serial are suffering this, leading them to attack the party. In one case defeated they "turn back to normal" or "regain all senses." A specific example is in MOTHER iii, with Lucas' twin blood brother Claus during his time as the Masked Human being. His female parent Hinawa's spirit has to bring him to his senses.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The fourth wall is a chip soft in this serial, but manages to avoid total devastation.
• Circle of Friendship/Clap Your Hands If You Believe: In each game, the Final Dominate (Post-Terminal Boss in the 3rd game) cannot be defeated by conventional means.
• Combat Medic: The main protagonist of each of the games has a PSI powerset consisting almost solely of healing and status buffing, while too being 1 of the toughest physical combatants in their respective parties.
• Cool People Rebel Confronting Authorization: In EarthBound and MOTHER iii, the protagonists usually fight against authority in some fashion. Ness ignores a DO NOT ENTER Sign at the start of the game and is then forced to fight confronting the Cops of his hometown in lodge to be allowed to motion on to the side by side town. Lucas and his friends fight confronting the dictatorship of Pigmask Ground forces that are industrializing and corrupting the Nowhere islands.
• Cowardly Mooks: In the later 2 games, the Preexisting Encounters volition actively avoid the Player Party once it manages to consummate whatever dungeon or area they're establish in or if they are too strong.
• Crapsaccharine World: A somewhat downplayed, Zig-Zagged example. The earth always starts out looking bright and friendly on the surface, but there'due south always multiple things horribly, horribly wrong just underneath the surface. Nonetheless, The Power of Friendship is played unironically a major theme, and even when yous run across its dark side it still lacks the sense of inexorable despair of a full-blown Crapsack World.
• Critical Hit: The SMAAAASH!!! assault is present in every game. This is a critical striking that ignores Defence force, and both player characters and enemies can become them.
• Defeat Ways Friendship: Then, and so many bosses. Teddy, Frank, Everdred, Carpainter, Monotoli, etc. Justified with a couple of them in that they were Brainwashed and Crazy, and defeat snapped them out of information technology.
• Dub Name Change: In EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings; for example, the American holiday Theme Naming of the towns in Mother was changed and several enemies as well every bit a few NPCs had their names changed in the English versions.
• Deconstruction:
  • The beginning two games are Deconstructions of the usual Eastern RPG genre of Fantasy from effectually the times that the games were released in, the games of the genre usually fix in Medieval-esque times with kingdoms and Monarchies and having the heroes using Magic and Swords to fight their foes, their enemies usually being monsters and demons. With Mother 1 and MOTHER 2, the games are set in the Mod Era, Rural America in the 1980s and Eagleland in the 1990s respectively (Eagleland being a parody of America). Y'all explore the world and fight enemies ranging from Hippies, to Possessed Cars, Street Signs, and fifty-fifty runaway dogs. The Political party unremarkably buys their weapons from Convenience Stores, their weapons ranging from Bats, Frying Pans, and Yoyos, though there unremarkably is at to the lowest degree one character than can wield a traditional sword. Instead of Magic, some of the party use Psychic Powers known as PSI, and generally take telepathy to understand animals. And instead of the main villains being some Fantasical Villain who is powered past Magic or being God itself, the villains are merely Aliens who are invading Earth.
  • Interestingly enough, Mother iii is a deconstruction of the traditional Modern Era setting and enemies that both Mother 1 and MOTHER ii established...which more or less brings the series to the usual Fantasy story of a non Modern setting and enemies that near Eastern RPG's are known for.
• Decon-Recon Switch: Equally the games' stories go further, they both deconstruct and reconstruct elements of many typical JRP Gs.
• Eagleland: Both EarthBound Beginnings, and EarthBound take identify in fantasy pastiches of various American settings, though merely EarthBound Beginnings literally refers to it as 'America.' EarthBound'due south Eagleland is fifty-fifty the Trope Namer.
• Energy Weapon: The PK Axle series of PSI used past Ana in the first game, and beams are a favorite weapon of the Starman enemies. Some of Lloyd and Jeff's guns are laser guns.
• Early Game Hell: Plagues all 3 games where you lot spend a good portion with no allies and limited PSI points and powers, so information technology'southward easier to run out of healing, and if y'all dice that's it.
• Everything's Deader with Zombies: Zombie mooks pop up fourth dimension to time. In EarthBound Beginnings, y'all come across them the early graveyard department of the game and Rosemary'south house. EarthBound'due south Threed has been completely overwhelmed past zombies, trapping them in a perpetual George Romero picture. In Female parent 3, the cemetery north of Tazmily Hamlet when yous take command of Duster in Chapter 2 comes up with some as well.
• Everything Trying to Kill Yous: Your offset two enemies in EarthBound Beginnings are a desk lamp and a doll. It only gets more off-the-wall from there. Enemies in all three games consist of everything from Animate Inanimate Objects to Brainwashed and Crazy townsfolk to rampaging animals.
• Expy:
  • The Starman race (or at least the visored, silvery suits they wear) is blatantly modeled after Gort. They even fire "beams" equally their primary assail.
  • Ness is almost identical to Ninten, down to the red baseball cap and blue-and-yellow striped shirt. Paula is one of Ana, with them both being cute footling girls in pink dresses, and Jeff is a spectacles-wearing Nerd who uses gadgets similar to Lloyd. These lookalikes are non the same characters, yet. Ness has more powerful PSI but is not equally practiced at running away. Paula has less offensive PSI options only more more buffing and debuffing PSI, besides every bit "praying". Jeff has a greater variety of weapons, and can steal by "spying", only has to "set up" his items. Averted with Teddy and Poo, who have no real similarities to ane some other.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Especially in the 2d game, with Eagleland (the United States), Foggyland (Europe), Chommo (Asia), and an unnamed continent based on Africa.
• The Fellowship Has Concluded: At the end of both EarthBound Beginnings and EarthBound.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In EarthBound Beginnings, visit a certain denizen of Magicant and take his philosophy about happiness and unhappiness into account:

  "Are you bothered that unhappiness and misfortune search you lot out? If you desire to never find problem... stay home!"

  • This eventually becomes Porky's ultimate fate in Mother 3, doomed to be isolated from the world in an indestructible capsule for eternity.
• Fingerless Hands: Most all characters in the trilogy accept this, even if they are sprites.
• Flashy Teleportation: Teleports are a PSI power in the commencement two games that requires motion but enables instant travel to towns that take already been visited. It may accept been planned to be in the third game, if unused teleportation sprites of Kumatora and Duster are any indication.
• Free-Range Children: No one in the Mother universe seems to care about a group of children wandering around the world with no adult supervision. Perchance it has something to practise with them being able to regularly beat upwardly whatsoever adults, zombies, and Eldritch Abominations they meet that stand in their mode...
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Ii examples, both roughly of the same age when they begin their descent: Giegue, an alien raised by Ninten'southward great-grandparents who Used to Be a Sweet Kid before eventually becoming an Eldritch Abomination described equally the "literal embodiment of all evil"; and Porky, initially presented as a comic relief character who is chosen to exist Giygas' representative on Earth. Porky turns out to exist the cruelest and about arbitrary character in the series, to the point of being the Large Bad of Mother 3.
• Frying Pan of Doom: Ana and Paula'southward well-nigh powerful weapons.
• Genre Deconstruction: Mother is Itoi'due south meditation on what games are, why they are fun, and the logistics of applying JRPG logic to the existent world. For instance: Who designs dungeons? And why do people instinctively know to loot them? (Admittedly, the series' mythos got a little deeper with each game.)
• Girl Next Door: Ana, Tracy, and Paula.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: The Viii Melodies in EarthBound Beginnings and EarthBound. In MOTHER 3, Lucas is in a race to stop all Vii Needles from beingness uprooted (or, when failure there becomes inevitable, make sure that he'south the 1 that pulls them).
• Healer Signs On Early on: Ninten, Ness, and Lucas all serve as the party's healers, although since Lucas doesn't become the protagonist until chapter four, y'all're forced to rely on other means until the story makes him the primary character.
• Hi, [Insert Name Hither]:
  • A prominent example, as this feature is used to name the game's most powerful assault and the nutrient your mother gives yous to eat every fourth dimension you see her.
  • Not to mention the name of your dog, the friends that you will make along the path of your journey, and the um... "season" of the text boxes.
  • And you are able to give your own name as well as that of the main grouping. This tin easily put the insanity of Giygas into perspective should you name yourself or Ness after him.
• Heroic Mime: The main protagonist is always this. In MOTHER 3 in particular, only the main protagonist the thespian is controlling at the fourth dimension is this; when non the main protagonist, they speak normally.
• Hopeless Boss Fight:
  • Commonly there'south always at least one of these in each game. In the first game there's the fight against Behemothic Robot R7038, who easily decimates the party and gravely injures Teddy. The party is saved by Lloyd who finally returns with a Giant Tank that wipes out the robot. In the 2nd game in that location's the Clumsy Robot, that when Jeff and Ness do a significant corporeality of impairment to him, he but eats a bologna sandwich and heals himself back to full, and the fight simply ends when the Runaway Five bring together the fray and flip the off Switch to shut down the robot. And in that location'south a couple in the last game, at that place's Main Eddy and the Porky Bots. No matter what you do, Main Eddy always washes your political party away onto the embankment of Tanetane Island at the end of the fight and causes them to lose all of their items and be reduced to 1 HP and 0 PP; this forces them to eat the Hallucenogetic Mushrooms in order to recover their strength (and if you try to move forward without doing this, you face another Hopeless fight in Zombieshroom who is blocking your path, as he wipes the floor with your party in their current country). With the second example, it's a very similar scenario to the Clumsy Robot fight in EarthBound; The Porky Bots don't heal themselves, but they continue constantly spawning new ones and summoning more enemies the more you defeat, the fight only ends when the DCMC show up and destroy the last of the Bots.
  • With the concluding boss of Female parent 3 notwithstanding, this is actually subverted: when yous get his HP down to 0, Porky gets into the Absolutely Safe Sheathing and makes it seem like he's most to destroy yous in battle. But and so you realize that while he's in the capsule, he tin can't actually attack y'all and is trapped in in that location for eternity, so the party decides that nil more tin can be done and finish fighting, leaving him there.
• Iconic Item: Ninten and Ness' red baseball caps. Particularly so for the latter, with it showing up equally a Call-Back in Magicant.
• Kids Are Roughshod/Kids Are Innocent: A major theme explored in the games.
• Kid Hero: The majority of the protagonists in the games range from 11 to xiv years old during the time of their respective heroics.
• Kids Versus Adults: Some recurring enemies are adults who have been corrupted by evil forces.
• Magic by Whatsoever Other Name: PSI is pretty much the game's magic.
• Mana Drain: The PSI Magnet power works this way, draining enemy PP to add to the user'south reserves.
• Mayor Hurting:
  • Mr. Mayor (A. Goodman) of Podunk is a Wilkins. Fourside's Gelegarde Monotoli is a malevolent Quimby (or so information technology seems at outset).
  • Onett's B.H Pirkle and Tazmily's Pusher are both Quimbys.
• Meaningful Name: The franchise'south name was inspired by the John Lennon song off of Plastic Ono Ring, but that doesn't mean it doesn't take any meaning the series games. Giygas'southward connections with his adopted mother Maria and sequential feelings of abandonment is what drives a major portion of the overarching plot of EarthBound Beginnings, and carries over slightly into EarthBound. EarthBound also has Ness's mother, who he must phone call periodically to cure his homesickness. In Mother iii, the loss of his mother and sequential attempts to bargain with information technology are a major part of Lucas's Grapheme Development, as well as his Mother'southward spirit being the 1 who brings Lucas' Brainwashed and Crazy Brother Claus dorsum to his senses in the Terminal Boxing.
• Mental World: In its first incarnation in EarthBound Beginnings, the Fluffy Cloud Sky Magicant is the lingering consciousness of Ninten'due south grandmother Maria. Magicant in EarthBound is Ness' Mental Globe.
• Minimalistic Comprehend Art: All three Japanese boxarts are just the game's logo against a solid cherry background. Averted with the English EarthBound boxart, which shows a towering Starman imposingly framed in front of a psychedelic background similar to the backgrounds used during the in-game battles.
• Nerd: Lloyd and Jeff, with their spectacles and penchant for engineering.
• Nerd Spectacles: Lloyd has the round-rimmed version, while Jeff has the classic thick foursquare frames.
• Now, Where Was I Going Again?: In the pedagogy manual, Itoi personally implored gamers to play though EarthBound Beginnings at "a leisurely footstep." This ended up beingness pretty redundant ◊.
• Once per Episode:
  • All the games take a sequence where a band gets up on stage and plays a song, be information technology the protagonist themselves in EarthBound Ancestry, The Delinquent Five in EarthBound, or the DCMC in Mother 3.
  • Similarly, all the games have a mini-arc that deals with the undead in some fashion. ^note Podunk Graveyard in EarthBound Ancestry, Threed in EarthBound, and chapter two in Mother 3
  • Additionally, all the games accept an area where y'all see People Jars. ^annotation Though in Beginnings case, this wasn't in the Japanese original and was only added in the American prototype, which ended up sticking for future rereleases of the game.
• Only One Proper noun: Every playable party fellow member except for Jeff doesn't take a terminal proper name, since he'due south the son of Dr. Andonuts, it's pretty like shooting fish in a barrel to assume that is his last name.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Ghost enemies announced in all iii games.
• Our Time Travel Is Unlike:
  • In EarthBound, Ness' party travels to Giygas'due south lair, a cavern at the center of the Globe teeming with institute life, but it's otherwise empty. They deduce that Giygas is attacking from the past, and use Dr. Andonuts' phase distorter to ship them there.
  • After disappearing at EarthBound's climax, Porky got lost in extensive time travel abuse, to the point where by the time of Female parent three, it'south warped him to be an immortal old man with the mind of a child.
• The Pin Is Mightier Than the Sword: The Franklin Badge, which reflects electric attacks back at the opponent. Played for Drama in MOTHER 3, when Claus intentionally commits suicide past shooting lightning at Lucas.
• Playing with Fire: The PK Fire serial of PSI involves using psychically-conjured fire to attack enemies.
• Police Brutality: In EarthBound, the cops attack Ness simply because he refused to read the "Do NOT ENTER" sign at the traveller'due south shack leading to Giant Footstep, despite the fact that he clearly received the shack's keys from the equally incompetent Mayor Hurting B.H. Pirkle.

• The Ability of Friendship: Invoked in all of the games, but specifically in EarthBound when it'due south the combined power of the friends Ness and party made over the course of the game that enables them to defeat Giygas.
• The Ability of Love: Lucas' signature PSI attack, "PK Love" is a literal case. Giegue is just defeated by the memories of his surrogate mother Maria, and Hinawa's love for Claus is what snaps him out of his Brainwashed and Crazy spell as the Masked Man.
• The Ability of Stone: Ninten's mission to reassemble the song of Queen Mary, the only weapon confronting Giygas. A like quest awaits his successor, Ness. And so there'southward the English language proper noun of Ness' Signature Move, which was inverse from PK Fighting Spirit to PK Rockin'.
• Psychic Powers: A Staple of the series, is office of the shifting of the traditional setting of the eastern RPG to the modern era, psychic powers — or PSI — human activity every bit the analogue of the traditional RPG magic.
• Ray Gun: Some of Lloyd and Jeff's guns are these.
• Recurring Element: The main protagonist ever wears a striped shirt and is a Combat Medic with usually ane of the highest attack stats of the party and is i of the slowest, if non the slowest of the political party, likewise as having a PSI ability unique to himself. ^notation fourth-D Sideslip for Ninten, PK Rockin' for Ness, and PK Love for Lucas.
• Same Story, Dissimilar Names: EarthBound shares many plot similarities and musical cues from EarthBound Ancestry, to the point that some theorize it to be a re-envisioning of the Famicom title.
• Scripted Battle:
  • Every game at least has 1 of these, usually them being the Final Dominate. In EarthBound Ancestry Giegue, who yous need to sing to viii times in a row in club to defeat him. In EarthBound nosotros have the final boxing confronting Giygas, who y'all accept to continuously pray against in order to telephone call aid from your friends and the role player to defeat him. And in Mother 3 we have The Masked Man, Claus, who you have to constantly keep yourself alive against while Hinawa's ghost fights to get him to recollect himself and finish fighting.
  • Some other example is besides in EarthBound, where you play as Poo for a segment. He goes to meditate earlier heading to come across the residuum of the party, and this meditation sequence takes place in a "battle" where the enemy systematically takes Poo's limbs and senses. You sally completely fine, with a rather prissy level up, despite existence reduced to 0 HP during the sequence.
• Serial Escalation: One of the largest plot points in the second and third games? How many times tin Porky Minch ruin anybody's lives. And boy, does information technology escalate.
• Sheathe Your Sword: A full-on attack on Giygas and The Masked Human being is pointless. To win, you have to eschew violence (the antithesis of every JRPG at the fourth dimension) and instead entreatment to the humanity inside them.
• Shock and Awe: The PK Thunder serial of PSI.
• The Smurfette Principle: The primary playable party always consists of 3 male person characters and one female character, who is the Drinking glass Cannon and Squishy Wizard of the group.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: The protagonist of each game can talk to animals, who sometimes offer tips or only make regular animate being noises. Of course yous can only talk to friendly animals, not malevolent ones.
• Spell Levels: The PSI powers of the games are divided into this by Greek Symbols, from the weakest version of an ability ([ability proper name] α) to the strongest version of an ability ([power name] Ω). Some abilities have fewer levels than others, and EarthBound Beginnings also included π as a level, which did not reappear in either of the subsequent games.
• Spiritual Successor: Though EarthBound shares the same villain with its predecessor, information technology's more this than a straight sequel to EarthBound Beginnings, keeping the same overall plot and very like characters in a different setting.
• Status Buff: The OffenseUp and DefenseUp PSI, which raise concrete attack and defense, respectively, equally well as the EarthBound Beginnings-merely QuickUp, which raises speed.
• Status Effects: Everything from "Incomprehension" to "Petrification" to "Sleeping," with the usual "Poisonous substance" effect (losing HP each plough) being split into no less than three effects depending on the game (caput cold, poison, nausea, etc.).
• Super-Deformed: The series renders its human characters with very exaggerated proportions in both sprites and clay models - overly large heads and small limbs, making them look cute. The American versions of the dirt models of Ness and Paula of EarthBound were noticeably stretched, giving them longer limbs and probable trying to brand them expect older, though neither other party members Jeff and Poo received the same treatment.
• Surreal Humor: Humor involving odd, wacky and outlandish characters, quirky dialogue, and cartoony antics is a staple of the MOTHER games, particularly with enemy designs. EarthBound and Mother iii are probably the best examples of this.
• Talking the Monster to Death: It'due south a common theme in the serial for the Final Boss to exist defeated in a non-tearing manner.
• Tank Goodness:
  • A rental. In EarthBound Ancestry, Lloyd shows upward in another tank to defeat the second giant robot.
  • Kumatora, Wess, and Salsa face a Pork Tank in Mother iii.
• Telepathy: An in-game mechanic in the first game that uncovers the solution to certain puzzles, and used by Paula to contact Ness and Jeff in-story in the 2d. Broadly, this is probable how Ninten, Ness and Lucas tin sympathise the thoughts of animals.
• Teleportation with Drawbacks: PSI Teleport (Denoted as "α" in Earthbound) requires that the user run in a straight line in order to gain enough speed to accept off, making it incommunicable to use in enclosed spaces.
• Theme Naming:
  • Most towns in MOTHER are named subsequently an American holiday. Woolseyism inverse these names in EarthBound Beginnings because the translator thought they were silly.
  • Eagleland'southward towns (with some exceptions such as Happy Happy Village) are named Onett, Twoson, Threed, and Fourside. The seasonal theme from the first game sort of continues in Foggyland with Winters and Summers (though not Toto). (Chommo's sole settlement, Dalaam, does non share either of those traits.)
• Titled Later on the Song: Afterward a song by John Lennon, picked considering, to Itoi, information technology didn't audio like the kind of name a video game would accept.
• Trademark Favorite Food: All of the games allow players to enter its proper noun at the offset; past default, it'southward prime ribs for Ninten, steak for Ness, and omelettes for Lucas.
• Tragic Villain:
  • Giygas. He felt betrayed past his adopted parents when his adopted father stole secrets ^note Unsaid to be the ability to use PSI from his people that could exist used confronting them, and pushed away his adopted mother who still loved him as a upshot. He eventually attempted a full scale invasion of World in retaliation, just to be terminate by his technically great-nephew who reminded him about his feelings of his adopted female parent. He swore he'd come back for revenge subsequently, and attempted to throw off any feelings he still had for his adopted parents, and it all went downwardly hill from there.
  • Porky likewise, believe it or non. He grew upwardly in an abusive household, with Ness being his merely "friend" every bit a kid. And while the English Translation makes him out to seem like he'south just a plain asshole who assisted Mr. Carpenter in trying to make Paula a Human being Sacrfice of his own will, the original (and canon, mind you) Japanese version shows that he actually was listen controlled just like everyone else, and truly does enquire Ness for Forgiveness afterwards. But because Ness doesn't respond to this due to being very angry at him, Porky storms off very hurt and aroused at Ness, and more or less sends Porky to join Giygas equally a issue, and things escalate to the point where he constantly tries to brand Ness'south journey harder and ruin his life at every turn he can, and eventually escapes to a dissimilar fourth dimension period at the end of Earthbound. Afterward thousands of years of time traveling and being locked out of every time catamenia except for one (every bit well as aging unnaturally into a very old man), he ends up on the Nowhere Islands of Mother three, and begins a Squealer Dictatorship upon the islands, and it only gets worse from in that location.
• Truthful Companions: Every single game's party consists of four friends, and all of them are fine examples of this.
• Ii-Part Trilogy: An odd case of this trope in that it applies in two unlike ways. EarthBound Ancestry and Female parent iii are unrelated in about every aspect ^annotation Well, except for the similarities in how both games and atmospheres are noticably Darker and Edgier than EarthBound, and every bit how Lucas and Giegue both love and mourn the loss of their Mothers and try to deal with those feelings, as well as The Power of Beloved defeating the Final Bosses of both games past reminding them of their Love for their Mothers , just EarthBound serves as the second and first parts of each Two-Part Trilogy, respectively. Of notation, EarthBound Beginnings and EarthBound are connected past Giegue / Giygas, the sometime showing his Start of Darkness and the latter being the game where he'southward finished off for expert. EarthBound and Female parent three are connected past Pokey / Porky, the former showing his Start of Darkness and the latter existence the game where he'due south finished off for adept. However, it has nothing to do with Giegue / Giygas, nor are the events dealing him even mentioned in 3, making both ane and 2 a Two-Role Trilogy with EarthBound.
• Useless Useful Spell: Very much Averted serial wide. In the original game, the Instant Death Assault spells were near flatout Game Breakers thanks to working on about all enemies, only balanced out by the fact that you can't get it before all that's left are plotline bosses and the fact that almost enemies late game volition pretty much require you to spam them. Even though the latter two games would better balance Instant Death Attacks past making PK Flash more likely to make the enemy beginning crying instead of auto-killing them, even that tin can nevertheless come in handy. Most bosses are yet at least fifty percent weak to at least one of the game's status aliments in EarthBound, and lowering and buffing stats in Mother iii is pretty much required to trounce some of the game's bosses.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Holy Loly Mountain (Mt. Itoi in the English version) in the first game, the Cave of the Past in the second, and the Empire Porky Building, specifically its basement which houses a Cavern containing the Final Needle that'southward eeriely similar to the Cave of the Past, in the third.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Giygas and Porky are the core reasons the series is then dark. When they aren't involved, the games are much, much lighter.
• Violence Is Non an Pick:
  • Every final boss fight plays out like this in the end; the histrion can't win no matter how much they attempt to hurt the dominate, so an alternative method has to exist used:
  • In EarthBound Beginnings, Giegue has an infinite corporeality of wellness, then just attacking him solves nix. The role player instead has to sing Maria's song to him in order to win.
  • In EarthBound, Giygas has gone full Eldritch Abomination, and only doing impairment to him won't impale him; the thespian instead has to apply Paula'south Prayer command, and this results in the utilize of The Power of Honey to defeat him.
  • In Mother iii, the final boss fight is essentially Lucas and company getting their heads handed to them past the Masked Man. Lucas refuses to even fight, and everyone else goes down before they even accept a chance to. Unlike the above examples, though, this one's only a waiting game, and the player only has to survive long enough for the fight to achieve its decision.
• White Magic: The LifeUp, Healing and buff PSI are the series' equivalents to this.
• Widget Series: It's most credible in EarthBound, which mostly keeps things empty-headed and wacky outside of its infamous Final Boss. While EarthBound Beginnings and Female parent 3 accept their airheaded moments, they're by and large far more serious in tone than EarthBound.
• World of Weirdness: The entire premise.
• Year X: Averted in the Japanese version of the beginning game, which takes place in 1988; played directly when the English language eShop release gives it as "198X." Played straight in both versions of the 2d game, which have place in "199X."
• Yin-Yang Clash:
  • Simply as Ninten and Ness are all near the melody, the antagonists of Mother take ear-rending theme music. Some of it would send John Muzzle running in terror. (Incidentally, this is the first hint that Porky is going to exist problem.)
  • Giygas has no melody at all, only an incessant, high-pitched band.
  • Magypsies fill up the role left behind by Queen Mary and the Mr. Saturns: beneficial but weird. "Magypsy Party" is i of the best songs in MOTHER three: a heavenly synth with a scatting sax overlay. Fassad is the traitorous Magypsy: once he falls off the Thunder Belfry, he reappears as a cyborg with an assortment of horns strapped to what used to exist his olfactory organ: a rocket-powered, robotic "translator" does the talking for him. His "spoken language" is a hideously off-cardinal version of "Magypsy Party".
• You Cannot Grasp the Truthful Course: The second game is the Trope Namer, and information technology's a tradition of final bosses (Giygas in the get-go two games, Porky in the third) to use this type of attack.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/Mother

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