Earthbound Creator And Nintendo President Have A Chat

By Ishaan . April 4, 2011 . 5:04pm

Earthbound creator, Shigesato Itoi, and Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata, are close friends. In the past, Itoi has been the host in “Iwata Asks” style discussions with Nintendo employees, including Iwata himself, and recently, the two of them had a chat about the Earthbound (or Mother, as it’s know in Japan) series.

This talk was published in Japanese magazine, Brutus, and while no confirmation of a new Earthbound game was made — in fact, Itoi denies it outright — you may find the discussion interesting nonetheless. You can read the full piece, translated, at Earthbound Central, but here’s a little excerpt:

Itoi: Yes, exactly. That’s why, in my eyes, I see them as unfinished works that I’ve left sitting there for someone…

 

Iwata: For someone to come and finish.

 

Itoi: Yes. For someone to take the baton and run with it. And, unlike a long-distance relay race, with a game you can take that baton and run in any number of directions. That makes things all the more interesting. You can run through the mountains, or you can go all the way to the lake if you want. You can cry out, “I love running!” as you run, or you can run quietly and savor the thrill of running deep down inside. Whatever it is, it’s something the guy who handed you the baton couldn’t have done. What’s more, sometimes the runners just keep running and running…

Don’t jump to any conclusions based on that excerpt, though. No development of any sort of Earthbound game is actually confirmed or even alluded to. We’d recommend reading the discussion mainly for the other points of discussion if you’re an Earthbound fan.

Mother 3 (or Earthbound 3 if you prefer) was never officially released in English. The game was developed in collaboration by HAL Laboratory, Brownie Brown and Nintendo. Brownie Brown are presently working on Fantasy Life with Level 5 for the Nintendo 3DS.

ooooooh.....snap

There's nothing really new here. Itoi's just reiterating that he'd love to see what someone else could do with Mother, now that he's no longer making any Mother games.

I'll write mother 4. And it will really be about. You are really a frog.

If I remember correctly he (and brownie brown) said Mother 3 was the last one and they didnt want sequels, so he changed his mind assuming my mwmory serves me correct.

It doesn't. He's always been open to the idea of s omebody else making Mother 4.

Iwata's saying much and meaning nothing whenever he talks about Mother. I mean remember, this was a game that was released on GBA in 2006. If Nintendo had cared at all about really pushing the title, would that have been that hard to make it a DS game? Even a DS game in name only like FFTA2...

The series is abandoned, and that disdain comes from the very top.

I just hope they release a full Mother compilation at some point with all 3 games translated.  I'm dying to play Mother 3; I played it on my PC for a couple hours but the timed hits feature is completely ruined even if it's off a bit so I refuse to give it such a poor light of day.

Overall I just hope Itoi makes some sort of game eventually.  Even if Mother is dead it doesn't refute the fact that he has some unique talent with the gaming medium.

It would be hillarious if SE and Nintendo teamed up to continue the Mother series.  With Yuji Horii and Armor Porject head of its development.

I believe he said that right after the release of Mother 3 in fact lol he just said Mother 3 was his last game in the series and that he would welcome someone else taking the franchise... I personally don't know how I feel about that since it was Itoi's writing and philosophies that make the Mother series so unique... I just can't imagine someone else doing it since it just wouldn't be the same, Mother 3 brought me to tears and that's all I could really ask for in a final game really.