Earthbound Beginnings' weird version differences

hilda talks about that game she likes
links:
Tracy's Fleabag glitch video: • Flea Bag Glitch in Dep...
Tracy's Flying Man glitch video: • New Flying Man out of ...
MOTHER Any% TAS by chatterbox: • [TAS] NES EarthBound B...
Mother - Part 31: A Friend Indeed by chuggaaconroy: • Mother - Part 31: A Fr...
Mother Forever page: mother4ever.net/differences-b...
starmen.net page: starmen.net/mother1/images/game/
Music used (in order)
Snoopy Concert - Theme of Charlie Brown
Bomberman Hero - Dessert
Street Fighter III: Second Impact - Get on a Train (Necro's Stage)
Snoopy Concert - Theme of Peppermint Patty
Street Fighter III: Third Strike - Spunky (Makoto's Stage)
as the end of the video says i used the windows 10 video editor to make this whole thing and it was miserable. never doing that again lmao

[@stoic_rose]

NEW INFO JUST DROPPED: The super bomb is in the FC version, but it only drops from the Star Miner. So i just was getting very unlucky!! oops

[@DarkHeroAkutare]

Did KZbin add the chapter titles automatically? "holy lowly mountain" and "the gig fight" are amusing.

[@stoic_rose]

i do believe they were auto generated, but im sure you can see why i wouldnt dare remove them (the auto generated names are immaculate)

[@GenericSeal]

cant believe they wouldn’t let the crow smoke

[@stoic_rose]

cant believe this shit...

[@saermonhd]

caw caw lung cancer

[@CRCBenton]

@@stoic_rose STOP TAKING LIGHTERS FROM CROWS THEY HAVE EARNED THE SECRETS OF FIRE

[@carlosemilio5180]

​@@saermonhdtruly a SCRAW! moment

[@obamius4521]

Who let the crow smoke

[@mr.j3rs3y]

2:54 iirc the reason for this was to not encourage smoking, because Shigesatoi Itoi managed to kick his smoking habit. Atleast for the characters that are smoking anyways.

[@MeesterTweester]

The change was also in the leaked NES version made 2 years later. Though I guess he liked it enough to put it in Mother 1+2.

[@DrakeInferno]

Also worth mentioning, the localization to NES made some significant lore changes. Namely, in the original script, George is *never* said or implied to have stolen PSI, and the plan that Giegue's people had to take over the Earth was something already in motion before George entered the picture.

[@stoic_rose]

oh yeah, i totally forgot about that!!

[@prismavoid3764]

The bit about PSI is something I've never heard mentioned before, though it does make some sense! I always wondered why they included that whole detail of George "stealing" PSI from the aliens, when it seemingly adds nothing to the story beyond maybe being a vague explanation for why George's journal has the secret to get into Magicant in it. Makes a lot more sense that it wasn't something originally intended!

[@blazeknight5050]

The way crumbs work is that every character has coordinates stored for them (in RAM and SRAM). When you use crumbs as Ninten without him ever using the bread item, you can teleport to what I assume is 0 0 (out of bounds). This was fixed in later releases by just removing crumbs from the inventory any time inventories are passed (including Lloyd Teddy swaps). The original Famicon release also has different shop items. Originally, the Beam items were not purchasable at all. They added them in he English release to the Reindeer shop, although this barely does anything to the balance of the game considering the items are a dark horse option, not to mention they didn't bother making them cheaper (the price for the item is the same across versions, and they are so high because it is useful as a sellable item if you get it as a drop). The Flea Bag glitch is kind of a strange name, because it isn't actually a glitch, more like an unintended exploit. The item reduces Offense and Defense by 50%, and in the original Famicon release, it hits everything similar to PSI Block and Rope. In later releases, they made it so the bit that controls whether or not an enemy is immune to most status conditions (including Beam γ) also makes them immune to Offense and Defense lowering. The actual "glitch" part is that the developers did not intend for you to win or draw out the Blue and Red robo fights. For the Blue Robo, your characters turn invisible permanently. For the Red Robo, EVE stays in the party. Although drawing out the Red Robo fight is unfeasible without save state abuse (you would need EVE to not die but there is no way to heal her, boost her Defense, or apply a Barrier), drawing out the Blue Robo fight is trivial for something that is supposed to be unwinnable. It only has 600 Offense for some reason; you can easily survive its attacks even without being anywhere near Lv99. You can't actually defeat either of them because the battles are scripted, meaning the enemies don't follow normal damage equations and don't even take HP damage to begin with. The Grey Robo is fine because it doesn't do anything when you don't lose, and it remains as a trapped tile unless you defeat him while having the tank. Funnily enough, you can kill the Grey Robo while having the tank without ever using the tank (like blasting the Grey Robo with PK Fire Ω or a Super Bomb) and it will still destroy the tank. I guess the robo falls on the tank when it is defeated or something... Another funny quirk is that the Grey Robo is scripted when you don't have the tank, meaning it doesn't take normal damage and is immune to Fire-type OHKOs and Freeze γ, but the moment you have the tank, the Grey Robo can suddenly be hit by all those moves. This wasn't changed in any release. Apparently, the Friendship Ring does something. If you have it in the inventory and fail the Forgotten Man's dialogue, you get teleported to the Girl who gives you the Friendship Ring instead of the beginning of Magicant. I'm not sure on this one though, because I can't be bothered to test it out. Text speed is also a misleading name. It only changes the number of frames of pause between battle messages, and does nothing in the overworld. All 5 numbers are present in both 8-bit releases of the game in the ROM, so it was probably a debug feature that was kept in for the English release. Thank god, because this feature, along with running and repels, makes Mother 1 very playable and I would definitely not be playing the game if the Famicon version was the only one. The default text speed makes you wait 33 frames between messages. That's mind boggling, over half a second between messages?? The dialogue box was also expanded in the NES version to 22 characters, unintentionally making it laggier because the text engine in this game prints spaces to fill out the text box. If you remove the space printing, the text flows way more smoothly (might make this a public patch someday). The placement of Level was also put on the far left instead of the far right so the names of the characters on NES could fit 1 more character, to 7 instead of 6. Level only takes up 2 digits (legitimately), unlike HP, which can (legitimately) only go to 3.

[@livvy94]

This is really comprehensive, thanks for making this!

[@stoic_rose]

:D!!

[@captainniiue1977]

The color differences in the sprites don't actually exist. The NES uses a palette for its colors, and unfortunately different people use different palettes either due to different emulators or personal preference. So there are no color differences between the famicom and NES sprites, the people who ripped the sprites just used different palettes. Another small correction is that Teddy never died in the famicom version, it's left up to interpretation whether or not he recovered. This is a good video though! I learned some things I didn't know before, especially the status color part

[@stoic_rose]

thank you for the info!! i didnt know about that color difference bit, thats interesting!

[@captainniiue1977]

​@@stoic_roseGlad I could be of service lol. To add on to the bit about the underground cavern map change, the area right before the Mt. Itoi cave also had its layout changed in the NES and GBA release, more trees were added to make a more straightforward path, and for some reason there was a slight change in the geography of Spookane, specifically the small area between the downtown and residential areas. It makes me happy that there are people who are passionate about Mother 1, it happens to be my favorite game as well!

[@napkin8920]

a few minor differences that really don't matter at all if you're playing the game as intended: -the max party size in all versions is 4, but the fc/nes versions won't fully accommodate more than three of the playable characters in the party at the time, only displaying the first 3 party members in the status window. the 4th character's stats can still be checked in the state menu, but beyond that, you can't manage their items, revive them at hospitals or cure them at a doctor's office, or use any items or PSI on them at all outside of battle however, despite it still not being possible in normal gameplay, in the gba version all 4 party members appear in the status window and function as normal, with the sole exception being that your dad doesn't list the exp requirement for the 4th party member (though in all versions the guy in magicant does???). this in particular makes the gba version my favorite of the bunch (though being the most polished version of the game certainly helps a lot) -in the fc/nes versions, the game doesn't really care what order the party is in, so long as ninten is in the front when he's not unconscious or stony, but in the gba version the party order similar to earthbound, where if everyone's conscious the party order is always ninten

[@stoic_rose]

AURGH CURSES i wish i had known these before making this video!!! i love useless knowledge like this, its what this whole video was predicated on,, maybe i should make a followup video with these facts along with some others some people have told me. thank you for sharing this with me though,always nice to have new knowledge about my favorite game!! :D

[@BrickmanZero]

I was doing achievements of this game just yesterday and I knew that you could check the areas with enemies by using the check option, I had a lot of mixed memories because I played all versions of this game, btw just to add now a way to being eve anywhere was found on the gba

[@theantgre]

Wait if you can only have three characters how are you supposed to revive the 4th one if he/she dies? I'm playing the gba version right now but I only have 3 party members at this point

[@sharpless2953]

I love this video so much! Another interesting fact about GBA's Breadcrumb glitch, along with being able to go to Mary, you could also go to the underwater base and recruit eve a second time. Doing this will actually have Eve be dead in the party, but if you take eve to the Healers house on Itoi you can revive her and walk throughout the world with Eve. This is the only way to bring Eve outside Mt. Itoi because like you said the flea bag glitch was patched in the GBA version

[@stoic_rose]

oh thats so cool!!!! also hey you have the any% wr for gba in m1 right? ive definitely seen your name before

[@sharpless2953]

@@stoic_rose Yes that is I. The record is currently at 46 minutes, 46 seconds, which is only 2 minutes slower than Earthbound Snes Any%. I would have never been able to make the glitched route work without yours and tracy's videos on the GBA breadcrumb glitch

[@cacathoes14]

Love the fact that you're using the Motherish font!

[@stoic_rose]

hell yeah i am! :D

[@kuma6572]

Bruh I got jumpscared by Necro’s sf3 theme Also unrelated but Ninten’s dog looks fucking weird imagine if Boney or King looked like that

[@kuma6572]

Nvm I remembered chapter 4

[@stoic_rose]

he standin...

[@kuma6572]

@@stoic_rosenah actually it’s a completely different character who just has a striking resemblance to Boney,even the guards say he’s a dog like dude

[@cynamin9283]

Awesome vid!! Always love such deep dives into things I otherwise have very little knowledge of - this sort of cataloging is historical!

[@kennylauderdale_en]

I'm sure this video is fine. I'm just leaving a comment to let you know it reached my recommendations.

[@superpsychic]

sweet video!! i always luv learning more abt MOTHER

[@stoic_rose]

thank u!! :] im glad i can provide information!!!

[@StrawberryFox56]

Love mother 1 I feel like people over complain when it’s really not that bad..

[@stoic_rose]

same!!

[@DarkHeroAkutare]

I love M1, but it's definitely not for everybody. If you don't have a high tolerance for random encounters and labyrinthine maps, it can ruin the experience. Even for me, Duncan's Factory and the swamp are... trying.

[@lilshinobu]

The factory without a map was the worst part of the game

[@dylanreed2581]

idk if youve heard this, but iirc in the famicom version teddy doesnt die, even though theres no post credit scene of him like in the NES version, if you use 'check' on him it will say hes very faintly breathing, but i could be getting information mixed up

[@stoic_rose]

oh shoot, no way! i dont think i ever knew about that!! :O

[@Diakyuto]

I did know that Phil sandhop did some changes to the game to make it one accessible like the run button but I’m surprised how much was actually changed. I didn’t know just how many troll items/ time wasting gags was in the FC release as well as the map changes. Kinda surprised these weren’t kept in the GBA Release as stuff like the Maze-y Magicant dungeon wasn’t as problematic to gameplay as Mt. Itoi remaining in it’s untested state. I’m also surprised you didn’t mention the Bullhorn dialogue change from “YOU’RE A DISGRACE TO YOUR MOTHER” to “YOUR MOTHER IS CALLING YOU” (though it does make using it on Giegue funnier which I’m pretty sure has a high chance of debuffing him. I forgor)

[@golderzoa]

This is one Mother of a video! Good Job!

[@QxCooL]

youtube recommended me this at random and it's very informative and nicely done!

[@stoic_rose]

im glad you liked it!! :D

[@BrandonTheFanGuy]

It's funny, now if you look at the US NSO it tells you the game came out in 1985 for some reason It's like some intern played the game saw 198X in the intro and swapped the date and nobody has corrected them since then lmao I first noticed this change on July 31 (2023), and I screenshotted it so I could always remember lol

[@stoic_rose]

interesting!! :O

[@CateGhost666]

really interesting video!!!! surprised to see a lot of stuff i didn't know about in here

[@karnas1mp]

i really loved this video sis keep it up one day ur channel is gonna be big just believe in yourself, instantly my new favorite content creator on this plat. bless you edit :sorry for bad english, its not my first language.

[@Glitch23Taken]

This was a pretty cool vid!

[@stoic_rose]

thank you!!

[@kulgen]

Yo great video!!

[@stalecheez-it1034]

i like your profile picture it's a cute goober

[@archagenteverlasting1239]

Lovely video!!!!!!!! MOTHER 1 is so underrated -- one of my favorite games of all time.

[@stoic_rose]

same!!! very good opinion :3

[@archagenteverlasting1239]

@@stoic_rose I recently replayed it as part of showing my wife the mother games (we're on 3 now) and I had forgotten just how good it was!

[@mopbrothers]

Nice video. The FC version sounds like hell to play through.

[@WitherVideos]

Nice video!

[@jonathanplooij3666]

great video

[@donaldthe4th817]

man what a great video. Can't believe I've never heard of you before

[@stoic_rose]

DOMALD ITS MEEE!!!!!1 HILDA!!!!!

[@donaldthe4th817]

woooaaahh it's THE hilda replying to my comment. This is a dream come true

[@3spoons366]

I noticed when watching different speedruns where the underground magicant layout was different.

[@stoic_rose]

yeah, i think that difference was what made me want to do more research into this subject and was what eventually pushed me to make this video

[@brownie8661]

the box art SUX!!!

[@jenjenneration]

Whoa... what version did I play because the towns were the NES version but the sprite differences weren't there. It was an emulated version on pc from back in the early 2000s

[@MeesterTweester]

Snoopy Concert music :)

[@stoic_rose]

hell yeah!! and hey, youre the person who did all the snoopy concert speedruns!!! mad respect, i love that game sm

[@MeesterTweester]

@@stoic_rose Thank you 😊 Glad to find another fan! Mother 1 is my favorite Mother game as well.

[@MeesterTweester]

@@stoic_rose Another thing to add is I got an original cartridge of Snoopy Concert and an SNES Mouse now, so whenever I get back into the game in the future I could play on original hardware!

[@NoshWare]

maybe a vid on the bug od mother 1+2 woudl be a cool idea for another mother related vid

[@Hocotate589]

So I have the Mother 1+2 Gba is that a good way to play the first one? I know it isn't the best for 2 that being the Maternal bound patch and well I already have Mother 3 but I guess I need to know about 1 of anyone can help?

[@stoic_rose]

so sorry i didnt see this sooner! yes, id say the gba m1+2 translation is a pretty good way to experience mother 1! id say the only issues it has are the colors being really washed out, as well as some of the music being kinda funky, but there's a patch to correct the colors to look more like the NES version, so you could always go for that. i know the 80s rpg-ness of mother 1 can be offputting to a lot of people, so i think the easy ring makes it easier for a lot of people to enjoy this great game :]

[@Hocotate589]

@stoic_rose thank you so much for getting back to me. I beat Mother 1 and loved it but now I have an alternate question. So I'd love to play Mother 2 but I don't wanna play it as Earthbound I'd much rather it be uncensored as possible. Not sure how exactly to do that in English though Any suggestions?

[@looneyloaiza4419]

I disagree with Earthbound Zero being a better name, I much prefer the Beginnings title, calling it Earthbound Zero is confusing and weird, it’s like calling the first Zelda game “Legend of Zelda -1”, then Zelda 2 “Legend of Zelda 0” and then A Link to the Past simply “Legend of Zelda”. It sounds rather silly imo.

[@Envinxity582]

Mother is the Japanese name of the Earthbound Series

[@stoic_rose]

wait really? i didn't actually know that, awesome fun fact

[@cynamin9283]

I don't think that's true...

[@SuperTrainStationH]

What the is this peanuts music. I like you and this video.

[@karnas1mp]

hello bro /sis i hope you have a nice day i really liked this video and your channel as a whole you deserve at least one million subs god bless your soul😊😊😘

[@stalecheez-it1034]

mookmook :)

[@stoic_rose]

thats me!

[@stalecheez-it1034]

@@stoic_rose I LOVE MOOKS im starting a mook fanclub

[@leolaus]

no way mook youtuber

[@stoic_rose]

thats ME!! :D

[@leolaus]

@@stoic_rose ALINIVAR GAMING ALINIVAR GAMING ALINIVAR GAMING ALINIVAR GAMING

[@stalecheez-it1034]

YAAY ALIEBNS

[@mr.j3rs3y]

@@stoic_roseThe lil spaghetti noodle aliens 🍝

[@Pirateyware]

2:06 bit of a nitpick, but FC Shroudley's red is not "slightly darker". It's the same color index as NES Shroudley, hex 16. The NES/Famicom has a famously inconsistent color palette depending on what output method and display device are used, leading to variations in the interpretations of its colors, but internally it's the same color. The same goes for other "slight color differences" noted throughout the video. EDIT: I see someone else already mentioned the color thing. Carry on.

[@stoic_rose]

yeahhhh, theres a lotta mistakes in this that bother me, ive been considering doing a remake of this video to fix em all

[@TOPGWAFDude01]

Help me with a lost-media search. Would you remember a videogame criticism/retrospective youtuber around 2015-2018, with a distinct Canadian voice named "TheRandomGuyOnTheInternetWhoPostFlipnotesDude01"? I've not been able to find anything about this KZbinr since or April or March 2019.Only asking if this rings any bells... And I somehow knows he's Canadian because of seeing his KZbin About Page with a Canadian Emoji Flag on there.

[@stoic_rose]

nop, i dont know anything of the sort :[ i wish you luck on your hunt, though!!

[@crazyduplicate]

Your videos would have more views if the cute cyclops girl was on all of them

[@stoic_rose]

you know what fair enough but also im not trying to blow up. machi should live on in some manner probably though

[@Remie_REM_Sleep]

Agreed, Earthbound Zero is the way to go. I just have more nostalgia for that title

[@stoic_rose]

very good opinion :]

[@wistfulanthophila9317]

why the name Hilda?

[@stoic_rose]

cuz thats the name i chose! simple as that really

[@wistfulanthophila9317]

@@stoic_rose ig i cant say much i chose multiple for myself bc i couldnt decide

[@HaydenTheHistorian]

Between takes I can hear your mouse clicking. You should look at the wavelengths on your timeline and cut those bits out.

[@stoic_rose]

well heres the thing: the software i edited this video with, windows 10 movie maker, didnt have a very good audio timeline, so i didnt notice it at the time. this is something ive fixed in my later videos, tho :]

[@kingmarsh4657]

Oh hey, it's you.

[@stoic_rose]

it sure is! someone talking about mother 1 couldn't be anyone else

[@commentresurrection1841]

Blink and you miss is it difference? um the nips?

[@ZEEROXCD-izzy]

a mook girl wth,,,,,,

[@stoic_rose]

thatsa me!

[@cranberryfgc2325]

uh youre cool

[@stoic_rose]

NO YOURE COOL

[@clairofmemories]

as a mother fan there are so many trans mother fans omg

[@stoic_rose]

truuuueeeeee for reaaaaalll

[@davebob4973]

more like gay earthbound

[@stoic_rose]

you are literally so right though

[@sassyimps]

2:21 - It's because the center pixel on each breast (likely intentionally) resemble nipples. Breasts, especially artistic depictions (which could qualify given these enemies are automatons) I believe are considered less taboo in Eastern cultures, but are a big no-no in the west, especially in games aimed at children.

[@Gameboy_9917]

great video

[@stoic_rose]

thanks caid :3