Mother 1+2's Butchered Sound Quality (Review)

What do you get when you take a beloved JRPG, it's infamous predecessor, and make a half-assed remake of both for the GBA? You get this game.

[@ReeseyPuffy]

I’ve recently noticed everyone pointing out Blewgamer’s high quality rips of the Mother 1 + 2 soundtrack, implying that all my problems are due to the compression. I’ve listened to those rips and I will agree, they sound much better without the GBA speaker muffling them. Here’s the thing- the compression was never my issue with Mother 1 + 2’s soundtrack. In Mother 1’s case, my problem is that the instruments are loud and irritating and compared to the NES version, they’re very flat. Mother 2 GBA on the other hand nailed the instrumentation (which is admittedly impressive), but my complaint lies with the melodies themselves which just sound incorrect in comparison. That being said, they’re certainly not “horrendous” like I stated in the title. I’m fine with listening to them. Although if I had to choose between the renditions on the NES/SNES or the GBA, I’d pick the originals in a heartbeat. (That’s not to say you’re required to prefer the originals as well, you can like Mother 1 + 2’s soundtrack more. It’s all a matter of taste.)

[@forind934]

Thanks for the info. I understand now

[@efrenaguayo4109]

I mentioned it to you

[@kumatrash]

u should make a disord

[@costby1105]

The NES, SNES and the GBA handle sound very differently from my research. The NES has five channels, two pulse wave generators, a triangle wave generator, a noise channel and low quality digital samples. The SNES has a dedicated sound chip with eight sound channels but is apparently only Sample channels with a noise channel. The GBA handles sound similarly to how the Game boy did, with two square wave channels and sample player and a noise generator with an additional two Direct sound channels in the GBA possibly due to backwards compatibility with the original GB. My guess from my minimal amount of research was that the Pulse wave generators were matched up the square wave generators on the GBA(Square waves are pulse waves but pulse waves aren't necessarily square waves). For Mother 2 it's much more impressive given the Limitations of the GBA sound hardware compared to the NES.

[@superenderphsuperender261]

i cant find anything about him, can anyone send me a link to his youtube channel or something?

[@Ad3m30w]

Let’s all just be thankful Mother 3 didn’t sound like this

[@levimoura8086]

But, then again, we don’t know how MOTHER 3 would’ve sounded had it been released on superior hardware

[@oi6915]

@@levimoura8086 we got a glimpse at best with the Earthbound 64 music (3 tracks?)

[@piyushmenon4987]

@@levimoura8086 Imagine if Mother 3 was released for the GameCube. It would sound so good, but I would miss the Pixel Art style of the old games.

[@Mr__Jack]

Personally, The Cave of the Past is the one area of the game I think the lower quality music does the game more justice than the SNES version. It sounds a lot creepier and makes the buildup to Giygas a lot more unnerving

[@thedemolitionsexpertsledge5552]

@Ryan Vetter is it wrong though?

[@tempest4655]

"Some people say that mother 2 is super glitchy, but I never had a problem" *PROCEEDS TO HAVE 6 CLIPS WHERE THE TEXT GLITCHES*

[@ReeseyPuffy]

That’s not an issue with the game itself, I was playing an incomplete fan translation. The version I had was only finished up to Twoson so the rest of the hack had unreadable text. Although I might have pointed that out in the video.

[@tempest4655]

@@ReeseyPuffy yeah, makes sense, just liked the irony

[@lonko1337]

I'm... actually fine with the music in both ports honestly. Except for Snowman that one's just horrendous.

[@agentblackbird9435]

Eh. M1 Snowman was alright for me. Except at the end. It’s too screechy. M2’s Version was worse, imo. Still passible to me.

[@glowkirby]

Sound effects arent too shabby in my opinion. Yeah, some are kinda worse, but they have their GBA charm.

[@louispluspizza]

It sounds like my headphone don't work anymore

[@PeruvianPotato]

M3's snowman blew both the SNES and GBA versions apart

[@extrez]

Don't shoot me. But I kinda like the Snowman render in the MOTHER 2 part of MOTHER 1+2

[@invertedcolors9881]

Tbh, Giygas’s theme sounds even more terrifying in this version

[@ReeseyPuffy]

To be honest, I actually agree with you

[@flippy101mph9]

battle against a machine is a masterpiece here

[@thefoolerofmany]

fetus intensifiess

[@godzilla174]

Yup

[@probium2832]

_Giygas is Wounded!_ though...

[@extrez]

Please don't start cussing me out, anyone, but I actually don't mind any of soundtracks in MOTHER 1+2. They have a certain charm that makes them sound just... kinda, crisp, I guess. It sounds like it'd be something you'd hear on a handheld.

[@channel91uhf]

To be honest, same. But the soundtracks definitely could be better. Take super Mario advance 2 for example. Super Mario advance 2’s soundtrack does sound compressed, but it still remains faithful to the original game’s soundtrack and doesn’t have any pitching, tone, or speed issues at all.

[@supermaster1325]

Yeah, same for me, i just dont give a shit about how it sounds, im just happy that i can play all 3 games on the go, thats so wondeful, same about the Super Mario Advance Series

[@channel91uhf]

@@supermaster1325 for me, when I play mother 1+2, the really bad sound just, grrrrr, it just throws me off. Luckily there’s a team working on a sound restoration project which will make the sound quality of the game significantly better than what it was which will hopefully improve the experience for people like me.

[@that_one_shiny_eevee]

...and then there's Giygas' Intimidation

[@extrez]

@@that_one_shiny_eeveeTo be fair ... handheld sound. Given the soundchip for the SNES was made by Sony (if I recall correct??) it's of course capable of sounds that a gameboy console isn't. They had to improvise. But god don't remind me of Giygas' Intimidation

[@Mr__Jack]

I think an important part of this is to state that these are PORTS not REMAKES. The reason they didn't update MOTHER 1 graphically is because it wasn't remade from the ground up. They just took the NES version and did what they needed to in order to get it to run on a GBA. But, yeah. All these GBA ports had sound issues though EarthBound definitely got it the worst

[@ReeseyPuffy]

Nessential Even if it’s just a port, I feel like they could have at least fixed the tiling issues (like the example with Magicant’s castle I showed). I’d be asking for completely redrawn sprites if this were a remake, but even just touching up on something that minor would have been nicer.

[@ErikaFurudo1986]

I think the reason why the Mother 2 portion of the Mother 1+2 soundtrack sound the way that it does is that it's missing a lot of the things that made the Earthbound soundtrack sound the way that it does. It lacks the weird echo that a lot of SNES games use, the heavy use of pitch bending that most of the songs in the game use, the decay is just not there, and certain instruments are just off tune. In layman's term, it feels like they just converted the SNES songs for GBA and forgot to add back the little things that made Earthbound's soundtrack sound the way that it does.

[@agentblackbird9435]

4:40 Lloyd went to the school lab, mixed a bunch of stuff, and drank it. This is what he heard.

[@expoproductionsinc.6025]

He you weakling, stinking lloyd!

[@jaydemlowe]

I’m fine with Mom 1’s Soundtrack, they replicated it well enough in my opinion , but Mom 2 is just HORRENDOUS

[@SteelNil]

"What are you playing?" "I'm playing *mom"*

[@CarlC9898]

@15 yr-old psycho I'm playing mamá

[@bird5109]

That "Mom 3" image fucked you up didn't it?

[@CarlC9898]

@MR10\\MegaRetarded10 I'm playing mami

[@ChorusCory]

"for the last time, it's not mother, it's BIRTH GIVER"

[@ernyoung8357]

I'm surprised the GBA OSTs manage to get THIS close to sounding like the originals, especially with how unique Mother 2's original samples were

[@Bitzly]

15:00 I think most of us can all agree that this one has to be the better version

[@supahcomix]

yeah definitely gba

[@Ultrasteel74]

no

[@CJ-42070]

Prefer original tbh

[@roxynano]

Is it me or I actually still like the Mother 1 music on GBA? I may actually prefer the music on GBA then NES. (I’m self aware I’m weird) I guess it’s just personal tastes. Mother 2, you had one job and you failed.

[@expoproductionsinc.6025]

Yeah I agree

[@efrenaguayo4109]

If you don't like the off colors in mother 1 on gba you should try out the color correction patch it looks just like the original NES version

[@ReeseyPuffy]

I’m aware of that patch and I’m definitely grateful it exists. Really wish I could play it on an actual GBA though. (Without a flash cart ofc)

[@efrenaguayo4109]

@@ReeseyPuffy there's actually 3 Color Restorations the NES - NTSC Colors Wii U VC Colors Brighten and Wii U VC Colors Official

[@ReeseyPuffy]

Yeah, I know. It’s nice you can choose from three different color palettes.

[@myristicina.]

I thought it was the normal audio since I played this version first Edit: only for mother 1, I played the SNES version for mother 2

[@xd-ym9qv]

i'm fine with mother 1's music but mother 2's music sounds unsettling to me

[@ultraprincesskenny6790]

I would've liked to hear the original version to know how they were supposed to sound

[@quadpad_music]

Or... you could play the game you're watching a review of?

[@ultraprincesskenny6790]

@quadpad_music Why are you being stupid online? I shouldn't have to spell this out for you. Pause for a sec and think about your reply and how useful it is. Pause again to think about the intent of the original comment. Why do you think I commented that? Please think before you act next time. The video you are commenting on is on the sound quality compared to the original, and does not include the original. It is a video comparing how things sound, and doesn't include the comparison for the audience to hear. I am providing criticism for the video, which is made for people to watch and listen to, not have people go into both games to compare themselves. Do you understand? Edit: Secondly, this is a sound quality review, not a game review.

[@brodieainsworthmusic]

The reason Jeff couldn’t use smash attacks in the original mother 2 was because he only used gun based weapons, which were purposely made to reliably deal the same amount of damage with no chance of smash attacks. All of Ness’s yo-yos are also gun based attacks, giving Ness a choice between reliability or spontaneity.

[@mopbrothers]

I don’t know why but there’s something charming about playing Mother 1 and 2 on the GBA. It’s ear rape sound almost makes it sound like new music. I like it.

[@reginangel_official]

I must say that some music sounded better than the original, like Pokey Means Business.

[@glowkirby]

Hospital had a pretty neat lower pitch.

[@StormtrooperInStilettos]

Not to mention giygas theme.

[@shuckleberryfin3184]

If you’re super curious as to why the sound font is so trash, it’s because of two major factors. Firstly, the NES sound font channels terribly on the GBA, which is basically a SNES, but a tiny bit weaker. This means all of the 8-bit music you can see on the NES will be blasting out the speakers of the GBA. Now, how did the screw up the Earthbound sound font so badly? Well, all of the music for the Earthbound port is a very detailed MIDI file that the GBA cannot fully channel. Imagine playing Skyward Swords OST on a GBA, that’s basically what’s happening. You can search for the uncompressed versions of the Mother 2 ost here on KZbin.

[@mariogonzalez9082]

Actually, that first bit isnt true. The gba was many league's faster than the super Nintendo, aswell as its cartridges being bigger and more capable, its only weakness to the SNES where its ppu and screen resolution.

[@shuckleberryfin3184]

@@mariogonzalez9082 Yes and no. The GBA was developed on and made with SNES hardware. Simply put, all developers built and played their games in the SNES developers kits with a GBA CPU slapped onto it. In fact, all of the GBA developers kits included SNES controllers with it. So why does this work terribly with the Mother 1 OST? Because the SNES automatically sends audio through a 16-but sound channel. The GBA is very different from the SNES as you said-it preforms far better than the SNES, however you have to remember the games were developed on a partially beefed up SNES, hence the sound and graphical crunch.

[@costby1105]

The Game Boy Advance uses the same 4 sound channels the Game Boy used for backwards compatibility. Two Square wave generators, a sample player and Noise Generator; In addition it has two direct sound channels which play samples at higher quality than the Game Boy channel. The NES has five Sound Channels. Two Pulse wave generators, a triangle wave generator, a white noise generator and a sample player. All square waves are Pulse waves but not all pulse waves are Square waves. Plus the developers would have to play the triangle waves via one of the sample channels. Likely the NES sound track was crammed into the mismatch sound hardware. The Snes has eight sound channels. All of them are for samples.

[@sonicphoenix7]

the disinformation here is crazy

[@niplob]

After playing the SNES version through 7 times I now also did the gba version... You really gotta hear it on the real speakers to like it, trust me. It sounds so great and at some places like the giygas fight and magicant it sounds better than the snes version

[@Maru-dm7rh]

I've been playing Mother 2 on GBA recently for the first time, on real GBA hardware, an it sounds really nice, even with headphones on. It's different than the SNES version, but not as bad as your video shows - although you have definitely valid criticisms. I mean, I do love the GBA and I think it has a special charm when it comes to music, so I'm totally biased.

[@PKMNFan4664]

I just now wondered: would this port for the GBA have even come out if Mother 3 had been released on the N64/DD instead of the GBA in the first place?

[@tenaciouscreator5787]

Tbh I don’t get why everyone is “complaining” about the GBA soundtrack, I guess it’s just preference but it doesn’t sound that bad.

[@ReeseyPuffy]

Well, yeah. There are much worse GBA soundtrack conversions out there. (cough cough Sonic Genesis cough) My issue is that I feel like it could have sounded way more accurate to the original OST than it did, especially when it comes to Mother 1. It doesn’t help that the remakes themselves are kind of half assed and barely change much substantial at all.

[@alvaroluffybr]

@@ReeseyPuffy you wanna know why mother 1+2 sounded so bad? the game was rushed, and poorly used the GBA's Soundchip by using a crap soundfont, there are great GBA Soundtracks, one example is Mother 3, the soundtrack would have been better if the developers actually put some effort into it, the GBA was more powerful than the SNES it used a 32-bit cpu and it was powerful enough to mixing via software, oh and something interesting that i found the mother 2 portion uses better samples but since the soundfont sucked and the Muffled sound didnt help the samples sound bad.

[@alvaroluffybr]

another example of a game that had bad quality soundtrack was castlevania harmony of dissonance(the soundtrack is still good only the quality that sucks) since the GBA can do mixing via hardware, if u want better music you use more cpu cycles for that, in the case of castlevania they had to use the GBC soundchip on GBA because they went all out in the graphics, you can compare HoD to AoS and you will see the diference in sound quality.

[@alvaroluffybr]

@Ninten Of Podunk Mother 3's soundtrack is marvelous, its one of the Best examples for the capabilities of the sound chip.

[@BlueyTheProtogen]

there’s actually a mother 1+2 audio fixer rom but its a dev beta i got my hands on it though

[@Sheepy765.]

I have never heard the original soundtrack for mother and it would be nice to hear the OG and the port song back to back so I know what to compare the songs too.

[@ReeseyPuffy]

Yeah, I’m not sure why I didn’t include the original songs for comparison. I guess I thought the video would have been too long, but I could have just cut down the length of the GBA renditions.

[@brodieainsworthmusic]

@@ReeseyPuffyI think it would have worked to have the originals under your narration, that way the video isn’t made any longer.

[@yusokoliko]

Inside the Dungeon and Megaton Walk are the two tracks that make me audibly blurt out "What in tarnation" but on the tracks that I think did better, Bazaar made Scaraba a little more immersive.

[@Diembee]

God, the melodic high end is so sharp you can almost hear the quarter tones mess up your ears. It’s absolute torture on tracks like Magicant (Both Versions) and especially Summers. Snowman does also get a mention for being absolute garbage.

[@siyahseeker]

Speaking of music changes, the Mother 1+2 version of the SNES Earthbound uses only one sound for encountering enemies (called Oncoming Foe in the soundtrack), meaning there's no ambush (touched from behind) sound anymore.

[@channel91uhf]

There is an ambush sound but it sounds horrible.

[@GhibliNova]

Dude.. these aren't remakes these are ports

[@thatonecomicbookguy]

*North American Mother Fan Story!* I was introduced to the Mother Series by playing this port back around 2016 I think? Back then, I knew a group of acquaintances from Middle School that loved the Mother Series and got myself a copy of Mother 1+2 and 3 along with a GBA (I didn’t know anything about emulating games back then). I enjoyed my time with Mother 1, until my saved data was gone while playing Earthbound; I got far as the first visit to Magicant. Since then, I didn’t touch the Mother Series until I recently discovered game emulation for the first time. Just recently, I finished Mother 1 & 2 and thinking about playing 3 all the way through!

[@nyx3659]

I was thinking the music were alright, that it wasn't that big of a deal ...until 6:52

[@Butterstix2014]

1:43 I didn’t use the easy ring because I I wanted a more authentic experience but I think I was grind so much and wandering around not knowing what to do I ended up being fairly over leveled when I got to Duncan’s factory.

[@doodlehobbo8697]

The GBA songs of Mother 2 sounds like if an NES is trying hard to sound good. As for the sound effects I think they're pretty ok, sure it's butchered sometimes but some of them sound cool. Also for Giygas' theme it sounded so confusing and a bit messy which is perfect for making it more horrorfying and it feels like the song is trying to describe his inanity.

[@chrisd8458]

Playing through the NES version on WiiU for the very first time. I gotta say, it kicks total ass. Glad I got into this series. Looking forward to doing EB on SNES and the 3rd game on GBA.

[@The_Gamer_91]

I don’t know why people are shocked at this. The GBA is not exactly known for its sound chip...in fact, it’s bad, but you can notice it when it’s trying to replicate other soundtrack fonts.

[@costby1105]

GBA doesn't have a dedicated sound chip like the SNES did(produced by Sony IIRC) and has six sound channels compared to the SNES's eight. On top of this the SNES forgoes the Square waves almost entirely, instead using very short samples with a noise filter. The GBA first 4 are very similar to the game boy's with two square wave generators and sample player and a noise generator and additional two for direct sound. How the systems handle sound is almost completely different. It's why for SNES ports to the GBA always too a hit in sound quality.

[@MyNameIsntRyan]

The music outside Jeff's school is so fucked

[@efrenaguayo4109]

For me I don't have a problem with the graphics in mother 1 on gba because it was the first game and it was originally on famicom/NES

[@alvaroluffybr]

The graphics are basically the same except that they changed your field of vision(because of the GBA's resolution) the original game was 256x240 while the gba is 240x160.

[@mayday_SR]

the sound isn't the best, but just think of sonic 1 gba

[@ReeseyPuffy]

Mayday I mean, doesn’t that sort of kind of prove my point Mother 1+2’s soundtrack isn’t good if you have to compare it to Sonic Genesis

[@SonicTheCutehog]

Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis had way more drawbacks than just the soundtrack

[@gavinrobinson2270]

Tbh this is fine for the little speaker the gba had and if someone was playing this in a car it would probably sound way more similar to the original snes

[@brodieainsworthmusic]

The GBA was probably the hardest Nintendo hardware to write for and make it sound good, which is one reason Mother 3 is so impressive. Stuff like this is a lot more standard for what often came out of the GBA.

[@smivan.]

The magicant soundtrack in this Mother 2 port is super wretched, wow.

[@YoshiLightStar]

The GBA is quite good when it comes to audio since it uses the cpu to do samples it also should of had access to GBC sound hardware on top of that I wonder why they didn't just use the original sequences with the original samples from the SNES version and mother 1 could use GBC hardware and some samples for the 8bit sound

[@DerpDerp3001]

Yoshi, go download Deflemask and try to replicate it on the Game Boy.

[@DerpDerp3001]

It’s actually very difficult on the Game Boy hardware to use the same square wave volume sequences because the Game Boy uses primitive volume envelopes.

[@YoshiLightStar]

@@DerpDerp3001 Interesting thanks for the insight

[@radiokunio3738]

Nano

[@k-leb4671]

My problem with the sample based audio chip is that there seems to be a bunch of bitcrushing that goes with it. GBA soundtracks in general sound so static-y.

[@thecolorred1229]

None of the songs from Mother 1 sound too bad. I'd need a comparison to see the difference.

[@LunarKelsey]

Those sound effects from the Mother 2 side dealt psychic damage except for the one for getting a status effect, I love how that sounds so much I considered using it over the SNES version’s for editing purposes but I couldn’t find the sound effects ripped anywhere :( I’m not surprised nobody’s ripped them though- I’ll be honest, I probably have a bigger problem with how they did the Mother 1 soundtrack than Mother 2’s. Snowman sounds awful but after listening to the rest of the Mother 2 soundtrack it isn’t that bad, especially Pokey Means Business. Mother 1’s just sounds like a worse version of the original soundtrack while Mother 2’s felt unique in a good way.

[@emilia-tan3635]

What do you mean 'Butchered'? I think it sounds just fine!

[@xavierashford9072]

"That's it. The graphics are the same, the story's no different, and the game plays the same outside of the two changes I just mentioned." What's so bad about that? The original was amazing. I am perfectly fine with it being the original with a few changes for the better.

[@ReeseyPuffy]

My problem is that not changing/fixing anything substantial about the original sort of defeats the purpose of remaking a game. Mother 2 is one of my FGOATs but there are definitely some aspects I would change. The protagonists could have been more fleshed out and there were definitely balancing issues (multi bottle rockets, perhaps?). It’s not even close to being one of the worst/laziest remakes out there, and it was still a really nice way to experience Mother 2 on the go back in 2003. I’m not saying the GBA version is bad, but I feel like they didn’t reach the full potential of a remake.

[@alvaroluffybr]

The remake is not bad, the only problem was they didnt put more effort in to it, u can tell that by listening to the soundtrack, it could have been way better if they used a good soundfont for mother 1+2, the GBA was capable of doing wanders with sound, one example is the Mother 3 soundtrack that sounds perfect, even though it was on GBA.

[@the-NightStar]

@@ReeseyPuffy ..........it's NOT a remake, though. It's a port. If you can't tell the difference between those two things, that's YOUR fault.

[@ReeseyPuffy]

When I said remake I meant it as in a rerelease. I apologize for mixing up the terms though.

[@xavierashford9072]

@@ReeseyPuffy Well it doesn't matter anymore since we're getting fan-made remakes in Mother Encore and Mother Squared for the PC.

[@Bitzly]

And I always wondered about the game boy advance version why does PK starstorm sound like actual starlight sfx

[@ReeseyPuffy]

I’ll be honest, even though the original Starstorm sound effect fits better, there’s something about the GBA version’s that I prefer. It’s weird.

[@abandoned_old_channel]

i'm waiting for the full 1+2 fan translation to come out so i can play it on my gba (when i get it like 3 or 4 weeks after when i'm writing this) also they will be fixing some of the music apparently

[@Pinkio]

some music/sfx sounds like if they were made on Atari most of them are still decent for me though even if this port is a bit older than me

[@efrenaguayo4109]

I wish the mother 1 music doesn't sound butchered but I got used to it take a look at nes classic super mario bros on gba music sound like

[@TheSilverLeaf79]

Even though most of the audio quality is a downgrade, some select songs I personally like more than the original. Pokey Means Business is an example.

[@thelakeguardian8188]

PSI Rockin sounded like an old arcade machine

[@nickk3077]

If you wanted to make a stronger point about the poor quality of the songs, you should’ve also played the original songs so that we can make the comparison ourselves as well. You did this for the sound effects, no clue why you didn’t for the songs too.

[@ReeseyPuffy]

Yeah, I’m honestly not sure why I never included comparisons for the songs. Back when I was editing I guess I didn’t want the video to go on for too long, but I also could have just shortened the examples.

[@randyjsmash8028]

you could say Mother 2's soundtrack of magicant should be called Magican't. am i right

[@soontoonss]

16:47 i feel like that should be a sound effect in galiga.

[@RelatedSnow8420]

Am I the only one who actually likes the Mother 1+2 sounds? Edit from like, a year later: I only like the Mother 2 part. The Mother 1 part sounds like it was made on an Atari 7800 or a Game Gear.

[@ReeseyPuffy]

Judging from this comment section, you’re not alone

[@siyahseeker]

Some of them. They sound actually retro.

[@drum3406E]

Dude this soundtrack is really good it might because I play a lot of gba or i just never played mother 2

[@hopelessamaturerougeofhope4399]

Ya it's seems alright to me and I played a few Gba games most of the songs actually was good to my ears

[@brodieainsworthmusic]

I think Battle Against a Weird Opponent was definitely one of the ones that came across really well on the GBA, those are really tasty drums and the bass isn’t bad, the other samples are ok too.

[@somerandomkid9976]

Jesus for the amount of high quality editing and and voice over there is no reason for him to be sub 1000 subs

[@nex4174]

Hey, just to let you know, there is currently a project that is working on many things in this game, including fixing the sound!

[@snowob]

how is the sound being fixed?

[@nex4174]

@@snowob very painstakingly. For mother 2, we're converting the SPC files from earthbound to a midi then making them into a GBA compatible state. For the mother 1 side, its about editing the song to be closer to the original.

[@Sterophonick]

@@nex4174 hi

[@nex4174]

@@Sterophonick oh hello there

[@bosscrafty]

How can I find out more about this?

[@nikostormkilla]

the sound effects in M2/EB's port/remake fucking hurt my ears

[@davidmorin2818]

Like you said in the pinned comment, for Mother 2, I agree that the GBA songs match the original instrumentation quite well (with some exceptions), just muffled. I also don't mind the muffling. I'd have to play the GBA version again to see if the wrong melodies bother me as much as they bother you. (although, I don't remember it being a consistent problem). On the whole, I think the poor quality of the music (in a general sense, not necessarily referring to your comments and observations) is somewhat overstated (I also don't mind the Mother 1 side, but I do understand why the instruments sound annoying to people. I guess I just have a higher tolerance.)

[@T-Dawg75]

Mother 1+2 should of launched for the DS, and mother 3 a DS exclusive

[@withthescienceteam]

Honestly anybody saying that MOTHER 1's sound sounds bad, well its a port of an NES game, what do you expect? Personally i think the first and last example actually sound good Also remember that the GBAS soundchip is worse than the SNES's so its really not a suprise that the mother 2 songs sound different Poor magiciant though,

[@Patricia-ee2dh]

I always thought paradise line was better than the original one

[@vertise]

Compared to other GBA Remakes like DKC, the soundtrack doesn't sound all too bad. Yes these songs are definitely worse than the ones on the NES and SNES, but if you want to play some MOTHER on a quick car trip the songs definitely get a pass by me.

[@greengrapeguy6204]

The mother 2 sound efects just sound so funny

[@LMC764]

Dungeon man! What have they done to your beautiful music??????

[@agentblackbird9435]

I actually really like the GBA version of Weird Opponent. It sounds really funky to me. Also honestly, the music was kind of good for a GBA port. Just listen to Super Mario Advanced 2 (the Mario World Remake)

[@ReeseyPuffy]

Oh yeah, for a GBA port, the music certainly isn’t that bad. I kind of just meant compared to the SNES version, but it was a given it would sound butchered.

[@agentblackbird9435]

BlueNinten Here’s a Uncompressed soundtrack Which removes the compression. Sounds so much better. kzbin.info/aero/PLlI3youSieKIupHl7A0o2kh3hV6TP0ukk There’s also the OST, which sounds nothing like the actual music: kzbin.info/aero/PL345969DF3FD77AEE

[@ReeseyPuffy]

The uncompressed versions definitely sound better, I’ll give you that. But at least to me, I feel like they sound a tad bit off for the most part. Still not terrible for the GBA though.

[@agentblackbird9435]

BlueNinten They DO sounds a tad bit off, yeah.

[@probium2832]

*PK Suckin'*

[@Super_ATI]

I think the reason why the music is so bad is one, the GBA i think doesnt have a sound chip and the sound is made directly from the cpu and maybe when porting it to the gba, the were like "Yea we have some leftover space, so why dont we just shove earthbound beginnings in there".

[@gamertoon8230]

Is there a sound restoration hack for this compilation? Because for gba final fantasy ports, there exists fan sound restorations that bring the soundtracks for the ports to almost as great as the SNES versions

[@cullbear55]

A group on Discord is working on one. And they've fully translated Mother 2's side. They're just working out some issues, editing graphics, and polishing it up right now.

[@RedHatGuyYT]

Bein' Friends in the remake sounds exactly like the music Tetrabitgaming uses for his videos omg

[@jackbootshamangaming4541]

The sound is a lot nicer on MiSTer, due to being FPGA it's still the same quality, but the hiss is not present that is there in the GBA. If we could get higher quality sound files used like the final fantasy advanced sound patches it'd be so amazing as it'd sound as clean as it could, no hiss. That's the great part of FPGA, it can have all the downsides, but can also improve on them if you want, and no one wants the hiss.

[@supertyty0449]

I actually like the Onett theme in Mother 1+2 it feels more warm and cheery to me Also where did you get the fully translated rom where Mother 2 is fully translated to English?

[@ReeseyPuffy]

A couple years ago, I bought a fan translation cart off eBay. Although the Mother 2 portion wasn’t actually complete, it was only finished up to about Twoson so most of the dialogue was a jumbled mess.

[@supertyty0449]

BlueNinten Oh well it’s such a long game I don’t blame them

[@cullbear55]

There is no full english translation yet for Mother 2 GBA, but a group almost has one finished right now on Discord! The graphics still need to be edited though, and there are a couple issues to work out.

[@badbreakingbadvideos]

@@ReeseyPuffy hey same for me but even worse with my case

[@PKMNFan4664]

19:13 They're not remakes: they're ports.

[@ShadowMixes69]

Maybe the DS would’ve been a better choice than GBA

[@efrenaguayo4109]

The reason why the music is off it's because it's in game music if you listen to the music without the filters on KZbin it's actually good

[@ReeseyPuffy]

I listened to the music without the GBA compression and no, I still don’t think it sounds good. Like I said, my main issue stems from the instruments since they’re loud and obnoxious and sound completely flat compared to the NES version’s (Magicant being a perfect example). The Mother 2 portion on the other hand is somewhat accurate to the original instrumentation-wise, but the melodies sound off (again, even without the compression). But that’s just me, of course.

[@efrenaguayo4109]

@@ReeseyPuffy well what am trying to say is that mother 2 without the gba filters music actually sounds like the original snes version

[@Monafide3305]

I'm really not getting the negativity with these. I think people assume these are remakes, but they are intentionally simple ports that served their purpose well. I think the word obsolete suits them much better than half-assed. The compressed sound is a given on the GBA, but I think the music is translated to GBA hardware quite faithfully. I'm actually a lot more annoyed with the new sound effects if anything. Still, why would anyone be emulating a 2003 GBA port rather than playing the originals? It's also worth bearing in mind that this compilation was eventually sold for about 2,600 yen after a price drop, which was less than ~$25 USD at the time.

[@pulsar2049]

Baroque tuning at it’s finest +1 octave higher

[@joshs2235]

Here are the original Mother 1 NES songs to compare to the ones listed in this video. Magicant NES: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mWaki3iIiZmIo7c Bein' friends: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nl7Yf4CGipt6qqM Twinkle Elementary: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZqKud2WvaK5shsU The Paradise Line: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n2Tdaqlpe6uWb8U Snowman: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGbPYntne6yhbqM IMO most of them are acceptable except Snowman, the GBA port screws this one up pretty bad.

[@benplus1503]

Unpopular opinion: The Mother 1+2 soundtrack isn’t that bad.

[@polyduckwanaland]

I am fine with Mother 1 port soundtrack, but what annoys me, is that the snare sound is less realistic

[@Patricia-ee2dh]

16:45 I LOVE PK PACMAN

[@TotallySearch]

Mother 1's art style gets a pass due to the sheer amount of gameplay it was able to fit in 1989 especially the ability to see enemies before encounters in a turn based rpg even if it was only 4 specific enemies.Also besides the gba sound quality they were impressive ports for the time, the screen scaling was pretty good, both games got better scaling than what they did to the nes classic(so instead of messing with the graphics, they made it smaller). Plus, the game didn't have to make itself brighter since at the time the GBA SP finally released. Not the worst option for earthbound players imo.

[@ReeseyPuffy]

I mean yeah, the porting job is perfectly fine. Since Mother 3 was on the horizon, it was a good way to experience the first two games with the added benefit of playing on the go. It’s just that I would have preferred if it was a full on remake instead or if at the very least they tweaked the gameplay more.

[@TotallySearch]

@@ReeseyPuffy I prefer ports over a Mario Snes situation. Due to it being weird as heck having a different art style that may not match.

[@ElysaraCh]

Most SNES -> GBA ports had severely butchered audio. I feel like Mother 2 got around this by actually remixing the tunes a little bit to work around the limitations of the GBA's "sound hardware". YMMV on how much you'll enjoy it, but it is way more creative than just "the SNES OST but worse in every way".

[@ReeseyPuffy]

I plan on making an updated version of this video soon. This original version really hasn’t held up at all if you ask me.

[@Jason-rr8pu]

Why does 15:00 sound like something from mettatons section in undertale

[@itsasecrettoeverybody]

It's not a deal break for me the 2 games on a handheld in one package is a great deal. I would buy a repro if mother 2 was fully translated.

[@UltraEpicLeader10020]

the GBA Mother 1 tracks feel more inline with a gameboy color (with GBA-esqe drums) rather than trying to be the NES version's ost on GBA.

[@k-leb4671]

I have a similar feeling towards the DKC ports/remakes. Their soundtracks sound way lower quality than their SNES originals. DKC3 even has a totally different soundtrack on the GBA, but it's hard to appreciate when the music files sound like dodgy mp3s I got off Napster recorded in a bucket of socks. Also, regardless of any specs I'm shown on screen, I'll never be convinced that the GBA doesn't have terrible sound. The bitrate is borderline ear-grating to me.

[@cullbear55]

At least Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga sounds nice.

[@Teone77]

jeff couldn't SMAAASH because of the type of weapon he uses. Shoot weapons don't allow SMAAAASH attacks on SNES version

[@minignoux4566]

it's not even that bad man

[@shalpp]

Imo the big problem with the tracks in this game is how the mother 2 tracks sound like they've been bare-minimum ported over, not taking account of different sample frequencies or different parameters for ptich bends (as in they barely exist) Everything sounds relatively bog standard from snes to gba ports, with a smidge more jank due to probably rushed dev time, but to say these are all awful and ruined is completely overblowing the situation

[@ender7278]

You didn't provide comparisons between the two versions of each song, so how are we to tell the difference?

[@ReeseyPuffy]

As copied and pasted from a similar question I answered; I was actually planning on including both variations during the music parts, but I didn’t want the video to drag on for even longer than it needed to.

[@ender7278]

@@ReeseyPuffy I still don't think that's a good reason.

[@ReeseyPuffy]

As also copied and pasted from a similar response; Oh yeah, that’s a much better idea (Only using a portion of the song rather than the full thing). On the bright side, I learned my mistake quickly and in later reviews I’ve created, I only include a couple seconds of the songs rather than the entire thing.

[@johtojedi5328]

I've only played the GBA version (for the entire series, including M2... I had to Google some directions there), so this feels normal to me, heh.

[@patty6386]

As someone who played the GBA ports of the first two Mother when getting into the series I actually enjoy the Mother 2 side of the music. Sometimes I'll prefer it over the Snes version, but it's rarely often. As for Mother the side of things, I honestly can't stand it. I love the first Mother game, it will always be my favorite of the series but the GBA port I can't really. Yeah, it makes the game easier (in the fan translation) compared to the Nes/Famicom version, but honestly if you want a good music from Mother 1+2 just wait for that one patch or listen to the Mother 1+2 CD OST

[@k-leb4671]

Why did you start with the GBA ports?

[@patty6386]

@@k-leb4671 Well, a local game store was selling the reproductives of Mother 1+2 and decided I have been waiting long enough to play the Mother series. So with my birthday I bought one.

[@joshs2235]

Can you give any more info on the upcoming patch? Is there a website or discord that has news about it? Thanks in advance

[@patty6386]

@@joshs2235 The trailer for the updated fan translation has a link to a Discord Server. I haven't joined, but should check it out

[@redspear007]

I like the gba's mother 2 battle sound effects. They sound arcadey and 8 bit

[@astrograph7875]

The mother 1 music sounds like it came from a bootleg lolll As for mother 2, It feels like a mixed bag to me. some of them sound "alright" to me. While others like winters/magicant sound like as if the GBA is screaming and/or dying on the side of the road.