-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
(Another) Mother 4 fangame
- Thread starter SlimeGooGoo
- Start date
- News Indie
SlimeGooGoo
Party Gooper
.
Last edited:
Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
Looks good. They should have just made it their own, with no association with an existing IP they have no rights to.
justiceiro
Marlboro: Other M
That probably the plan: make the headlines, get a unforseen dmca, be "forced" to change the title while already having a following fanbase.
Rodolink
Member
Löwe framework
SlimeGooGoo
Party Gooper
.
Last edited:
Werewolf Jones
Gold Member
Wasting your talent on a fan game that will get Thanos snapped. lol.
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Their best option would be to release nightly or weekly builds, even if they're 100% non-functional. Release your code as open source / creative commons on Github so that even if everything gets taken down by Nintendo's lawyers, your work hasn't gone to waste and someone else can pick up the torch. This has the added benefit of potentially attracting new talent, as well as increasing exposure for your project with tons of WiP Youtube videos from people who are able to compile working parts of your game.
If they wait until they're completely finished with this before releasing it, the chances of this ever getting in people's hands otherwise is essentially zero.
Last edited:
S
SpongebobSquaredance
Unconfirmed Member
Kiddo Cabbusses
Member
I'm actually getting legit annoyed at how many "Mother 4" fan projects there are.
Mother as a series is practically entirely an insight into Shigesato Itoi's mind, with a fairly distinct sense of humor, themes and principles. Regardless of even Itoi's own opinions, a Mother game without Itoi is akin to a Metal Gear without Kojima. (Well, except Metal Gear managed a few non-Kojima side games, but besides that...)
Even many projects "inspired" by Mother/Earthbound don't go that deep into replicating the particular nuances of the particular games outside of "haha quirky funnies then SUDDENLY drama/horror!" - which is really for the best, as carving a new game's own identity gives it way better definition than trying to emulate a product created in a language you do not even natively speak, filled with references of things from before you were born, and created for hardware with particular limitations that need not be adhered to in modern development. You can't create the next Mother, nor should you. Let it rest.
Mother as a series is practically entirely an insight into Shigesato Itoi's mind, with a fairly distinct sense of humor, themes and principles. Regardless of even Itoi's own opinions, a Mother game without Itoi is akin to a Metal Gear without Kojima. (Well, except Metal Gear managed a few non-Kojima side games, but besides that...)
Even many projects "inspired" by Mother/Earthbound don't go that deep into replicating the particular nuances of the particular games outside of "haha quirky funnies then SUDDENLY drama/horror!" - which is really for the best, as carving a new game's own identity gives it way better definition than trying to emulate a product created in a language you do not even natively speak, filled with references of things from before you were born, and created for hardware with particular limitations that need not be adhered to in modern development. You can't create the next Mother, nor should you. Let it rest.
SpiceRacz
Member
That's fair and I would never expect a proper Mother 4 without Itoi's involvement. However, among the Mother 4 projects out there, this one stands out above the rest.
S
SpongebobSquaredance
Unconfirmed Member
Then Nintendo should remake them, preferably in a AAA fashion. They have all the resources needed.
NoLootBoxDev
Member
yes, I never understood why to waste time on an IP that belongs to a company that likes to C&D these types of games. Saying that I will go and proceed with my new game, "It takes 2 to Sue"
Kiddo Cabbusses
Member
Expecting a niche game franchise that has an unlocalized entry to get "AAA" remakes? (I'm going to assume you mean more directly a from-the-ground-up graphics/audio re-do with no other changes, since we're talking about Mother; anything further than that is inherently controversial)
I'll give some credit to Nintendo releasing some peculiar remakes (like the two Famicom Detective Club ones), but... that's the thing. Games like those, or Fire Emblem: Gaiden, or even the first two Metroids? They went with the oddball "The original games were kinda bad anyway" remake choices on purpose, probably in part because they could alter things without fan backlash. Incidentally, did you notice how many of the remakes were on portables so we could all mope about how they "weren't on a good enough platform"? Yeah, the vast majority of them in the past 20 years.
I have absolute certainty that no one would be satisfied with any creative choices made in such with how much they hold the original Mother games on a pedestal. There are people who insist the SNES Super Mario All-Stars is inferior to the original games to this day, and that's probably part of the reason why Nintendo went with emulators n' ROMs for 3D All-Stars.
That's even BEFORE the fact that these remakes would need Itoi's input as much as a full-on new game.
Again, let it rest.
S
SpongebobSquaredance
Unconfirmed Member
Xenoblade has now three entries and a fourth one will probably release sooner or later. None of the games sold particularly "great", as a matter of fact XB2 is the only one that managed to move over a million units. And those games are definitely of high quality and many would consider them AAA in a lot of ways. Definitely niche games though. so that shouldn't exactly be a reason to let the Mother franchise die. Mother did well in Japan but bad oversees. Nowadays the series is more popular in the West than ever before though.
Meaning, if they wanted to they could successfully bring it back and sell at least 2-3 million copies WW.
Whether they are AAA in the same sense as 30m-, 50m- or 100m- budget games, I don't care for. What I'm asking for are 3D remakes, cool art style, modernized storytelling, keeping it close to the original, and I know a studio like Monolith could pull that off.
Hypereides
Member
These people need to shut up and work on fanprojects like this while being mum until its ready.
Last edited:
synchronicity
Member
I just played Earthbound for the first time this year, and man what an awesome game! Really stood the test of time imho. So much charm.
Kiddo Cabbusses
Member
Why are we comparing theoretical new Xenoblade games to theoretical Mother remakes? That has a very different set of optics to consider, particularly Nintendo's relationship with a once-third-party devver and a need to fill a void in their catalog of games that a remake would not. Anyway, testing if Mother could be a multi-media seller would be an interesting project, but I'm pretty sure Nintendo would have tried more with the IP by now if they actually believed it would make those numbers.
Hate to break it to ya, but in current year these are inherently contradictory.
Absolute no no no no no on "modernized storytelling" please. I didn't even like some of the writing changes they did in Fire Emblem Echos: Shadows of Valentia, and the original game's story wasn't even that good. This is exactly what I mean when I say let Mother rest.
S
SpongebobSquaredance
Unconfirmed Member
Well, you have to accept that not everyone is happy about text-only storytelling in this day and age. There is still an undeniable charm to text based storytelling in video games, but that won't cut it with modern audiences and that's ultimately the goal of a remake. To reach new audiences by modernizing the source material while keeping the original in tact. If they actually remake it they should modernize the story telling with cutscenes, a better presentation maybe even voice acting among other things. I'm not asking for changing the story or rewriting large parts of the plot. Just that it's up to the snuff.
Otherwise, why even making a remake in the first place?
Just release the rom files on Switch then, but they don't even do that.
Because Xenoblade games are niche as well, but they will continue making them despite of this. And Xenoblade games are big open world titles and pretty polished. They don't scream low budget. Especially Chronicles X is mighty impressive.
The thought here is, if they can support a niche RPG series, the same developer might could give another niche RPG series a shot. Nintendo has the resources, including a renowned RPG studio. They know that the Mother series is much more popular now in the west than back than (thanks to emulation, fan translations and Super Smash Bros.) and they know that their games usually receive a boost on Switch.
I don't have a magic crystal ball either. So I can't tell you if a Mother Remake would be a success. But I think that at least 2 million units sold are definitely possible.
Holammer
Member
Mother mega fans are like Harry Potter fans, they need to play another game/read another book.
That said, very impressive and it really captured the look and feel well. Subtle use of sprite scaling you might have expected on 32bit hardware.
If they renamed it 'Uncle' and made it their own, it would be a big seller on all formats. Maybe even got what it takes to be an Undertale level success.
That said, very impressive and it really captured the look and feel well. Subtle use of sprite scaling you might have expected on 32bit hardware.
If they renamed it 'Uncle' and made it their own, it would be a big seller on all formats. Maybe even got what it takes to be an Undertale level success.
KungFucius
King Snowflake
I loved mother 2 and 3. I would dig another, but only an official one. When was the last one released? GBA 20 years ago? Maybe Nintendo can figure out how to market text based RPGs as interactive novels. They make kids read don't they?