Earthbound/MOTHER Series: A Nintendo Game About A Boy Who May Or May Not Be Autistic

[UberScout]

I LOVE THESE GAMES!!

Earthbound is right there next to the Kirby series in terms of my all-time favorite video game series ever. Earthbound only wins by a hair because of how the world, the universe and the people in it are depicted; a whimsical, loose-laying, humorous and only-occasionally serious patch of undertones every now and then; not too dark and gritty that younger audiences will be driven away, but not quirky and bizarre enough that players will be too confused to keep going. It does everything just right and gives people a break from the overly-done setting of "medieval fantasy world where you have to collect the four elements and unite them together so the dark lord can appear and you can defeat him and save the world" and instead gives us "urban present-day setting everyone can get familiar with instantly with the added bonus of doing everything a classical JRPG should do and does it right".

What caught my eye was Ness, the main character. He's an everyday-looking, baseball cap-sporting, school rucksack-toting 13-year-old kid who never really speaks throughout his journey (is he nonverbal?), loves junk food (maybe it's easier for him to eat?), seems to possess psionic powers (it is often said, however rarely, that most people with autism tend to exhibit extraordinary abilities, though I have yet to see this study become as mainstream as other things said about autism, however I have seen this one hit pretty close to home as I have had plenty of metaphysical moments myself and still do to this day), and appears to suffer separation anxiety from his mother (one of the status effects is that Ness can become Homeless, which will double his miss rate for attacks and PSI powers.)

If you pay close attention you may notice these things... But who's to say?

 

[Misery]

Ah, Earthbound... one of the only JRPGs I ever liked (past the NES era), or was able to at all tolerate. Most of the genre just bores me to tears... they're WAAAAYYYYYYY too easy to even remotely hold my attention... and the "let's make them stupid easy" trend seemed to start around the SNES era, but Earthbound actually held out from that and did have at least some challenge. And a good sense of humor.

Granted, these days I dont think I'd go back to it as it now IS too easy compared to what I'm used to now (roguelikes, which give me everything JRPGs couldnt), but still, there's at least a lot of fond memories and whatnot.

As for Ness being silent... ya know, that trend for protagonists always irritated me. Yeah, I get why devs of the time tended to do that so much, but it always just struck me as kinda dumb. Like, really, give the protagonist some lines and a freaking personality.

it is often said, however rarely, that most people with autism tend to exhibit extraordinary abilities, though I have yet to see this study become as mainstream as other things said about autism, however I have seen this one hit pretty close to home as I have had plenty of metaphysical moments myself and still do to this day

I always wonder about this aspect.

 

[Ovaltine Overdose]

I never got into Earthbound itself as a kid due to a lack of hardware to play it, but I have extremely fond memories of Mother 3/Earthbound 2. I was somehow tech savvy enough as a kid to install the fan patch on my dad's old mac computer and loved it to death. A lot of the nostalgic memories people have for Earthbound I have for this game, whatever it's called. The big difference is that Mother 3 is way darker. Earthbound is mostly about becoming an adult, where Mother 3 is mostly about loss of innocence. It's the same basic story, but told with 2 different lenses. Maybe Mother 3 is why I see the world the way I do.

 

[UberScout]

I never got into Earthbound itself as a kid due to a lack of hardware to play it, but I have extremely fond memories of Mother 3/Earthbound 2. I was somehow tech savvy enough as a kid to install the fan patch on my dad's old mac computer and loved it to death. A lot of the nostalgic memories people have for Earthbound I have for this game, whatever it's called. The big difference is that Mother 3 is way darker. Earthbound is mostly about becoming an adult, where Mother 3 is mostly about loss of innocence. It's the same basic story, but told with 2 different lenses. Maybe Mother 3 is why I see the world the way I do.

Yeah, I'd probably end up like Lucas if I lost my mother at such an early time in my life. But I'd probably go through what Ness did first.