i think it will soon be time for me to finally try mother 3... i played earthbound for the first time last year, and it was like seeing the raw ingredients of the media i've liked throughout my life for the first time
and so much of this is an evolution of Earthbound, that it makes the small differences standout a lot!! like, the graphics and sounds are all very "Earthbound but with more Power and Experience", but the start menu being icon-based and the little letterboxing that happens on interactions have really charmed me!
the most notable difference so far though has to do with the story itself. granted, again, i'm less than 3 hours in, but already the vibes are soo different. the silliness feels more subdued but still very present. and where earthbound was a game that started in a similar way to say, pokemon (a young boy starting on his own adventure, likely to find things about himself and grow along the way), Mother 3's starting vibe seems to be much more Family and Community-forward. Like, yes, there have been aliens in this first part, but the drama and forward motion of the story comes from saving people from a fire, and trying to reconnect a family separated by a series of disasters. Earthbound also had a lot of focus on communities, but the characters were never really members of those communities? they felt more like outsiders looking in. and also the forward plot of that one was Children Saving the World from Aliens.
I'm sure a lot of these early thoughts and differences will fall away as I get deeper in tho
