Well sorry for the double post, but big news! (for me)

I beat Mother 1 Just now. I've officially beaten all three Mother games. I have to say it was pretty awesome. It doesn't really explain all that much, but it's interesting none the less.

The last boss was really easy after Earthbound's. The last area place was a pain though.

How big a pain are we talking? Like, Cave Before Time at level 60 pain, or...?

It's kinda like when you fight final starmen and they use Starstorm omega. All through the last dungeon type place.

Honestly, I ran from 90% of the battles after a certain point.

Boy I'm glad they introduced rolling health in EarthBound.

I wonder why more RPGs don't use it. Possibly because they are resigned to sucking in comparison.

Yeah, I always loved that in Earthbound. I hope if they re-make Mother 1 they'll put that in.

I'm probably over exaggerating a little, but it's almost impossible to actually fight your way through without serious grinding. And I feel like I did quite a bit anyway.

I've honestly wondered why no one else does that either. It's such a cool little thing. I think you have the right idea though. The only other RPG I feel comes close is probably Chrono Trigger, but Earthbound is still a step ahead.

Other games don't use the rolling HP system because they don't want you to have awesome down to the wire fights. Like when you run out of healing items/PP, everyone but one person KO'd and are trying to jam the "Bash" command as fast as possible in hopes you'll eek out a victory at the very last second >:3

I'm enjoying the game so far (I'm at Chapter 7), but I have to admit to liking Earthbound more. This one takes itself a little too seriously for my tastes. Part of what I loved so much about Earthbound was that it had one non-sequitir after another, but it never seemed to stop and realize just how off the wall it was.


*SPOILERS AHEAD*

An example: in your second town you're taking on a cult devoted to painting everything blue. In the third you're fighting off a zombie invasion...with Zombie Paper. Then you go on an involuntary psychedelic journey with the aid of "modern chemistry." It was just one weird, awesome moment after another.

This game, by contrast, tries too hard to mix in "real" JRPG plot. While that has its payoffs too (most notably when Flint finds out that Hinawa died...that was pretty moving), it's not as unique as Earthbound was, at least not so far.

Like I said, I'm enjoying Mother 3, and look forward to finishing it ASAP, but to me, it's just not the same.

"Time Passage" is one of my favorite tracks from Mother 3. There, in the back of it, you can hear a tune from the original Mother. Which one is it?

Hmm, not sure, but the whole thing sounds like the intro to Mother 1.

Yeah, it's definitely the intro to Mother 1. I loved that part in mother 3. I walked the whole way.