How amazing is this. Although Itoi has been saying he wanted to keep quiet about Mother 3 details right up until release day, he has put together this page, (totally in japanese, read the translated version, thanks to the wonderful brains over at Starmen.net), which he seems to update about twice every week or so with new exciting EarthBound 2 media.
So far, he has released some screenshots, music, and information about the new Deluxe GameBoy Micro 'Mother 3' Edition, and now screenshots of the battle sequence!
World of Mother 3 Map! That's right, this is the officially released overworld map of the land of Mother 3! This map image was released by Itoi on March 6th, 2006. Looks like an interesting map indeed. I am curious about the resolution, however.. It leads me to believe this is a drawn rendition of the actual in-game map. Probably the overworld map used in the strategy guide. Definitely strays away from the typical "Mother map style". How exciting!
Volcanoes, mountains, towns.. Looks like we can make out several different areas, perhaps a forest area, mountain, volcano, desert, town, with so many other possibilities.
Image #1: Right on! Check out the new enemy, some sort of crazy floating serpent (from EB0?)! Looks like our main character is running for a present with his dog.. Guess it looks like he'll be around alot after all!
Image #2: Wicked! A battle scene screenshot! These names apparently translate to 'Flint', and 'Boney'.. So, Flint is in this game, and Boney is probably the dog! Awesome! They are dealing a 24pt blow to a bat! Looks like the same battle engine is being used for MOTHER3! Neat psychedelic background, turnbased EarthBound style fighting.. Are those two individual enemies or together do they comprise one? So many possibilities! Looks great!
Here is a rough translation of the caption written by Shigesato Itoi for the release of the above enemy/battle sequence images:
"..We would like to convey ' Mother 3' (RPG) not unlike other normal RPGs. There is story, You fight your enemy, and win the battle. You say by gaining strength from this, it IS a normal RPG. RPG is nothing more than genre classification of the game. There are many unique RPGs in the world, right? ' Mother 3 ' is just like this.."
Image #1: WOW! Whats this? A truckstop? Store? Whats with the buffalo? I cant even BEGIN to explain that big white floaty thing. Check out the party of three! A new cast of characters!
Image #2: Quite a haunting scene! Check it out, ghosts playing piano, eating, drinking, and being all around merry. Looks like our lone party member has joined them for the evening?
Image #3: This looks like the entrance to SOMEPLACE important! DC+MC is written on the sign. Could this be a character reference? Scientific reference? My guess is that this is a concert event (note ticket(?) pictured in right sign), and perhaps DC+MC is more of a musical reference (eg: AC/DC).. Notice some elephant statues similar to those seen in Dalaam (SNES) reappear here.
Image #1: Well, it's official! No more Ness! Looks like this Mother title is keeping true to the progression of the Mother series by introducing a whole new cast of characters! (Note: Mother 1, Ninten - Mother 2, Ness - Mother 3, this little fellow..
Image #2: Wow! This character of focus reminds me of Flint from the scrapped EB64! Our dog friend seems to be 'attatched' to his party one way or another.. I wonder what this character is all about!
Image #3: Yay the Museum! Doubt it's the Fourside museum, but I guess there is a possibility. Check out all the cool displays.. I'll bet something of significance will take place here!
02/01/06 ..Quick update -- here is a message posted on the Starmen.net Message Forum by Tomato, about an update on Shigesato Itoi's website, in which he recently spoke of Mother 3 and its release:
"After some discussion with Nintendo, I've decided to make a slightly head-start announcement here on Hobonichi. I've worried people quite a bit this whole time, but I'm happy to report that Mother 3 for Game Boy Advance is nearing release.
I've thought to myself, "It should be all right now that it's this far along," on many occasions, but I always made sure not to announce anything until I could say that it was "ABSOLUTELY all right." At any rate, this time I've decided to try and be reserved about everything. It looks like its release date will be about one season away, and I'm in the middle of doing many work retreats to get it finished. I'm going to work especially hard for a short while longer to get everything done.
By announcing this, I'm sure I'll receive all sorts of questions, but I'm probably going to stay quiet about Mother 3 until just before its release. I know the importance of publicity, but what I feel is that I want players to REALLY enjoy Mother 3. So until just before the game comes out, I'm going to remain as quiet as possible.
In any case, we're working on Mother 3. I'm happy as well that it's reached the point where we can make an announcement. Thank you to all who have waited patiently. Please forget about it again for a short while."
Here are some related articles regarding the game/release:
http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q4-2005/110605b.html-_
Nintendo has opened a teaser website that finally confirms that Mother 3 is not only coming out, but that it will see release sometime next spring. This fits in with what series creator Shigesato Itoi recently said on his website.
http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q4-2005/110305d.html-_
Via a posting on his website, Mother creator Shigesato Itoi has revealed new information regarding the long-awaited Earthbound sequel Mother 3, which was originally slated to be released for the Nintendo 64
http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/664/664899p1.html-_
November 7, 2005 - Last week's buzz regarding Mother 3 for the Game Boy Advance suddenly became a roar this week as Nintendo opened a website for the game.
