If you haven't been keeping up, this is a fan-made remake of EarthBound Beginnings (MOTHER 1) in the style of EarthBound (MOTHER 2).
You should absolutely check it out if you're a fan of either! Get the patch on their website here!
Now, I'll always recommend people give the original NES version of MOTHER 1 a try first, it's really not as bad as folks make it out to be - but if you're someone who absolutely doesn't want to play the NES version, you just got a pretty sweet alternative!
If the MOTHER series had kept its initial English localization plans of calling the first two games EarthBound (MOTHER 1) and SpaceBound (MOTHER 2) what would you have called MOTHER 3 ?
Something I've been considering for a while is trying to create a patch for the MOTHER 3 fan translation that would alter the term "Magypsies" to something else, since it contains a slur.
Main reason I haven't commited to that project yet (outside of lack of time) is being unsure how much interest there'd be in it, and what to use as the replacement.
I've considered "Magineer" as an option, from "magic" + "engineer", but unsure if others would vibe with that.
Well, if you'd be interested in a small patch like that and/or you got ideas for a replacement, feel free to let me know!
It's a known thing that the track "Dump" from Deltarune Chapter 3 is a not very subtle homage to the track known as "Zombie Paper" from Earthbound.
But something I've seen less people talk about is the context of when the latter is first used in-game.
See, the title "Zombie Paper" obviously refers to the story beat where zombie paper is used in Threed, but the track itself actually plays for the first time all the way back at the start of the game.
During the prologue, Ness is asked by his shady neighbor Lier X. Agerate to come to his house later, because he wants to show him something, and he specifically tells him to come alone.
Some players miss this, but if you do go back to check, he will show you. It's revealed that he's dug a gigantic hole beneath his home, and unearthed the Mani Mani Statue, an item which plays a bigger role in the story going forward.
This entire sequence feels like it's probably influenced certain moments in Deltarune, specifically the way a questionable older guy—who's slipping into obsessive behavior under the influence of a maddening presence—asks to meet the protagonist alone somewhere, providing hints at the game's greater narrative.
The similar music is really more the icing on the cake.
I dunno if any CogDis fans are waiting with bated breath for my next update, just wanted to say, yes, I will keep playing
I am just dealing with some physical health issues rn that also limit the time I oughta spend at the computer so I've had to put off CogDis in favor of some higher priority projects orz
Alright, it's been a hot minute since my first post-
See, I was looking to get a new computer, and since I wasn't sure if I could savely transfer my cogdis save file, I decided to wait before playing further, to avoid potentially losing a lot of progress (and thus, motivation, too.)
So uh, with my new computer set up, all I've done so far is replay the game up to the point where I left off last time ^^;
But, there are a couple things I noticed/paid more attention to on my second playthrough of the intro, so I still got some comments worth posting, I suppose
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First of all, I actually never took the time to linger on the title screen for this game (dunno why, I like title screen music; I guess I was just too distracted by trying to get the game to actually run.)
And the full thing is pretty neat! I mean I already liked it when I thought it was just gonna be those spacey noises, but the melodic part was a sweet surprise when I finally heard it. Adds a layer to it that made me feel more hyped for the kinda tale this game might want to tell me.
Little thing, but I am kinda amused by how the M1 gang's sprites are M3 style, even though this game mostly invokes M2 style so far. It*s cute to me.
Also Giegue is cute (he's suffering)
His attack names feel a little silly to me, but in a way I enjoy, so it's good.
I like how he can get mad to recover his PP.
And I did catch that flash of red that happens when you leave the starting room with him- since this is a M1-M2 interquel, I wouldn't be surprised if this game will more directly deal with Giegue's fall into madness, but either way, this felt like a nice hint at it.
The logs we are shown also got me curious about if this game will delve more into what the actual on paper mission of Giegue and his army is/was, and if so, what the details of its take on it will be, even if this already gives a strong idea of it.
The idea of emotions vs logic is something I remember a lotta fans treating as the canon background for it, so now I wonder if that perception was actually popularized by this game all along. Hmmmm.
Also-
Very interested if this is gonna get an elaboration:
Describing the song as "something they could not have possibly known" makes me wonder if the game will delve into how in actual M1, the song was "scattered" in a way that seems incomprehensible.
How could the very song itself be split into 8 pieces? Why couldn't George leave a complete record of it? Was it somehow made physically impossible for the song to exist in any other form than in pieces?
If so, my assumption had always been that Giegue and co. did it, likely using the Divine Tails or the like to do it, given that its said in game that the the ship that sails the cosmos "left" (or "forgot"/"abandoned") them.
Well, it says so in the JPN version. This game seems to go by the ENG loc, so it's possible it'll do something else that leans more into the ENG line, which slightly misinterpreted the JPN one.
(This is not me complaining, just pondering what I am in for ^^)
Also there was this red machine or robot that asked for a code but then vanished. When I first played I thought I "got" that thing, but I guess it actually just disappeared?
I hear this game has replayability incentives, so maybe that's something that might do stuff on a replay, maybe I'll get the code, idk
I only in hindsight realize what these squiggles meant-
Might've not been the best idea to introduce the battle system with something incomprehensible like that, but it IS cool, and I have gotten a much better hang of it by now.
The prospect of this game having M3 style Chapters also got me pretty excited ngl
I wouldn't wonder if unlike M3, CogDis will not have me jump perspectives a lot, but heck, it might for all I know
Another fun M3 reference, makes me wonder about alien caterpillars
Chilling a bit more since I was no longer unsure about when I'd be able to save the game, I now realized the theme of the town (?) before all goes weird is actually a Saturn theme remix. Neat.
Makes me wonder if there's a reason for why Alinivar was living here as seemingly the only Mook living among Mr. Saturns.
Is this unsual, or is this not that uncommon?
This weird rock slipped my memory the first time around cause I just assumed we'd return here later, but we never did, uhh
I don't know why the rock is growling.
Or is Alinivar hurting himself on the rock and crying out?
I don't know.
Lastly, of course the monochrome section of his near-death experience is reminiscent of Ness' flashback to his time as a baby in M2, but I realize now it's also kinda sorta similar to the Bread Crumbs Glitch in M1-
Alright managed to get this thing running and started my playthrough-
I do really enjoy the vibes of this game so far, like- it's hard to put into words, but it feels so much like a fangame, in a good way, I think (with a little asterisk I'll get to later.)
It's a very different feeling from the official trilogy that fits well with this setting being so different from what the MOTHER games themselves would tackle.
I don't remember a ton from the original version when I tried to play it back in 2009 or so, on my computer it wouldn't let me proceed past a certain point p early on.
I do remember even back then 16-ish years ago I thought Alinivar was so fun. Getting to play as a Mook in a MOTHER setting is just rad to me, like look at this funny alien, and he's me! I get to be him!
Genuinely heartrending to make his first battle having to fight and destroy his masterpiece, how could you do this me-
It's obviously a bit goofy/humorous too, but playing it I did think "that's kinda clever, we've never really had a first encounter in MOTHER have a layer of sentimentality like this".
Been struggling a bit with the combat system (partially cause I gotta use the analog sticks rather than d-pad which doesn't lend itself as well to this kinda control scheme) but I'm not entirely unfamiliar with this kinda "timed turns" style, so I'm sure I'll feel my way into it, hopefully, maybe.
It was interesting to see the little "prologue" more actively show us a bit of cause and effect, with the arrival of the meteors causing everything to come to life and attack and all.
It's a kinda thing that was subtly implied in MOTHER 1 and 2, but never shown quite this directly. Of course I'd have to see more of how this game handles it also. In the main series there seems to be varying degrees and layers of influence, considering there's scenarios like Ninten being able to stop the phenomenon in his house by destroying the strongest affected object, etc.
Still, it's fun, it shows the people behind this thought about the implications of all that stuff some, that's fun.
(Also I think this was literally as far as I got back in the original)
Am I silly or was this really the first opportunity to save the game?
I appreciate the MOTHER 3 reference, but yeah, I kept struggling at the start cause the game crashed whenever I tried to fullscreen or the like, so not being able to save until this part was a bit rough on me personally.
The very next save was an actual phone, so I wonder which type is gonna be more common :^Ic
(Also no comment on the Mr. Saturn explicitly being aliens in this, there isn't a lot about them that's happened so far.)
I was kinda slacking on taking care of my HP and got my ass kicked in this battle. Like, even beyond the story loss, I mean.
Gotta lock in more.
Hope my Mr. Saturn buddy is okay also, if they don't reappear, I guess they killed them, too.
On that note, this part was pretty cool
Immediately the MOTHER 2 Magicant architecture got me curious; the greyscale is also reminiscent of Ness' flashbacks. So I'm guessing this is some kinda Magicant or Magicant-adjacant mindspace.
I mean, a Divine Tail of sorts is on the title screen, so I'm guessing we'll be digging into that area at least a little?
But yeah, I really liked this-
Folks being brought back from the brink of death as a trope is just generally something I enjoy I suppose, and I like how we're giving Alivinar his "Buzzbuzz" moment here in a way that feels dramatic to a degree we haven't really seen in the main series.
Like, he just died and got ripped away from his home, suddenly he is adrift in this story that is so much bigger than him, without even the comfort of calling mom or the like. And no slow three year build up to his journey for him, either.
It also makes sense that for these alien folks, the whole Giygas situation would be a lot closer to home, so to speak.
I was a bit curious what'd happen if I said no, but with how often I had to restart the game I kinda didn't wanna risk a non-standard Game Over at this point-
Okay, okay, real quick, let me get the little asterisk I mentioned outta the way, like, I know this is prolly something fans of this game don't like people being nitpicky about, and I agree it's not actually a huge deal, so I wanna bring it up now and hopefully leave it at that.
First, there's this bit-
This is a really minor thing for all I know, idk if it'll even come up beyond this, but I really kinda wish they hadn't done a "Giegue becomes Giygas" thing and just stuck with one of those names.
Giygas is just not a character who's supposed to have two names, it's literally just a side-effect of MOTHER 1's localization being originally a scrapped prototype that they didn't need to stay faithful to for the MOTHER 2 localization.
I get that from the perspective of English-speaking fans it can be fun to do headcanon stuff with that, but to me I just don't vibe with excluding the original intent like that.
And on that note, there's also this-
Now, like I said, I barely know anything about this game, but I doooo think whatever this is might be the Apple of Enlightenment, I think that one plays a role in this story.
And well, in the Japanese version of MOTHER 2 it's established that the Apple of Enlightenment is specifically a machine, so if this game contradicts that, yeah, that is gonna make me ever so slightly miffed, I am sorry.
I know that is a silly complaint, I believe the apple being a machine might've not even been common knowledge back in the day (or today), and technically I don't even know yet what this game here actually does with it for real.
It also seems weird for me to care about that stuff when I'm fully fine with other canon-breaking re-interpretations and all, and I acknowledge that.
These are really just silly pet peeves of mine, and I intent to just let the game be itself and not judge it for not meeting my personal arbitrary flavor of canon adjacency.
I just had to bring it up at least once to get it outta my system, I hope we can all be cool with that, sorry if you've heard this a million times, cogdis fans.
Anyway, this was around the part where I had to stop, too.
And yeah, I did notice this fella, both here and early on near Alinivar's home, I am super curious what this is gonna be about, I legit have no idea at all
I'm not opposed to that, I've been curious about how it actually plays out and all-
worrying a bit about the controls- when I tested it it did accept my controller, but only let me use the analog sticks for directional inputs, which is a bit awkward
using the keyboard instead also isn't comfy either, since z and y are actually switched on keyboards from my region (compared to their position on American ones), meaning there's a big gap between two keys that are supposed to be right next to each other ^^;
