User:Czar/drafts/E64

Mother 2 (EarthBound) had sold well.^[1] By this point, Mother series creator Shigesato Itoi had worked on the series' earlier games and Itoi Shigesato no Bass Tsuri No. 1 and was experienced at pitching video games, so Miyamoto provided a team willingly. The Mother 2 development team carried over to the new game's development, though several people left and the team grew in size. They forewent the usual prototyping phase and went straight into development expecting to create something unprecedented. Itoi said he wanted to make the game like a Hollywood film.^[1] In September 1994, he predicted that Mother 3's development would end around 1996 with a release on Nintendo's then-upcoming console.^[2] The team was inspired by Super Mario 64 and felt that they too could creatively flourish by making a 3D world without restrictions. Their early technical specifications exceeded the capabilities and memory limits of the platform. About halfway through development, the team attempted to scale back its large scope and changed its development platform^[1] to the 64DD, a Nintendo 64 magneto-optical drive expansion peripheral.^[3] Mother 3 was expected to be a launch title for the 1998 Japan-only peripheral,^[4] but was converted to a regular Nintendo 64 game^[5] when the 64DD flopped.^[3]

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time) instead of a 64DD game.^[5][a] Mother producer Satoru Iwata cancelled the game altogether prior to the 2000 Space World,^[1] and Itoi announced the cancellation in late August 2000.^[9]

Project Dolphin (the GameCube). Some of the artists had been on the project for over three years. They estimated the project to be about 60 percent complete at the time of cancellation—the basics were complete and only programming was left. About 30 percent of the final product was completed. Itoi felt that it would have taken an additional two years to finish properly, and Iwata said that the game might have been finished by 2000 had the scope been reduced two years earlier. Miyamoto was involved in other work and spent little time on-site with the project, and Iwata too was distracted by bankruptcy concerns at HAL Labs and was off-site in 1999 due to circumstances that required travel. Iwata was also hospitalized during production for stress-related reasons. The team intended to have the game finished by the end of 1999 and knew they had to reconsider their priorities when they missed the milestone. They said that the Mother 3 supervisors had wanted to cancel the project since 1999, but later changed sides and said that cancellation would be wasteful. They discussed bringing the game to their forthcoming GameCube, which Miyamoto felt would have solved some of the Nintendo 64's hardware issues. Miyamoto and Iwata also discussed releasing the game on the Game Boy Advance, but realized that it would take "just as much time" with 40 to 50 staff members to make such a game.^[1] In retrospect, Iwata wondered out loud in an interview why the game needed to be in 3D when Itoi's "greatest talent lies in words" and thought that the energy poured into making a 3D game might have been a poor choice.^[1] He said he felt "genuinely ashamed", and acknowledged that they were both "caught up in the 3D obsession and felt obligated" at the time.^[1] At the time of its cancellation, Itoi predicted that Mother 3 would remain a story that only the game's staff would know,^[b] but Miyamoto was still interested in bringing the game to fruition.^[1]

Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. The game was enough of a departure from the series that the development team questioned whether fans would consider it part of the series.^[1]

cutscenes. He conceptualized the process as designing 3D "puppets" that could then be easily moved around the "stage".^[1] In actuality, each custom scene required special programming. The player-character changed between each chapter—a concept they first attempted in their previous game—so as to see multiple characters grow. As development wore on, Itoi offered to compromise by replacing full chapters with sequences of still images and text. They cut the total chapters to seven or nine by the time it was canceled. Itoi described the story as "normal" for its first half, leading up to a "triple-play twist".^[1] One of the game's themes was the reckless appearance and "uncomfortable beauty" of chimera—multiple creatures fused into one—which was the idea behind the metallic and wooden Mother 3 logo.^[1][c] Itoi has said of his role in the Mother series that he wanted to be more of a team member and scriptwriter and less of a manager in Mother 3's development. He saw himself as simultaneously making the game he wanted to play and setting traps for the player, and as making a game Nintendo could not.^[1]

non-player characters, and a mine cart scene, through themes including fantasy, the medieval, and science fiction. Physical contact with an enemy in the overworld triggered a turn-based battle scene shown in the first-person (similar to EarthBound). The battles had psychedelic backgrounds and a circular menu that included a command to "get up" if the player was knocked down in a real-time sequence.^[5] Attacks could be timed with the in-game music for stronger effects. The developers also planned multiple routes for advancing through the game and unforeseen complications from minor actions, such as a monster finding food dropped in the forest. The game was set to include features such as synching the game's time with the real time, but those features would not have worked without the 64DD. Mother 3 was set to run between 40 and 60 hours in length.^[5]

Brownie Brown staff assisted in the game's development, and Itoi worked with them on individual pacing issues.^[16]

human physiology was "one of his themes".^[19] As such, players sweat when learning an ability, based on Itoi's belief of how physical struggle facilitates growth. He also included characters like the Magypsies and Duster (who has a bad leg) to show the value of having friends with different qualities. Some environments were added to serve specific purposes. For example, Osohe Castle was meant to show the scale of time and Tantane Island was designed to reflect the player's worst nightmares as similar to Mother 2's "hallucinatory city", Moonside.^[19] Another of his themes was the duality of the seriousness and lightheartedness of games, which is why he added a serious death scene to the first chapter.^[20] Other parts of the game referenced media such as Kiki's Delivery Service.^[17][e]

Saipan before Mother 3 was cancelled. His Nintendo 64 version was darker, "dirtier", and more upsetting, though the final version changed little in concept.^[16] The Nintendo 64 version was to be more vague and left to the player's imagination through its sparse dialogue.^[21] Itoi attributed the change in tone to his own growth and the character composition of the new development team. He said that he had not been changed by fans.^[16] Itoi always planned for the two brothers to fight each other, though he did not write the ending until after production had already begun, a process he compared with Hayao Miyazaki's.^[21] Itoi processed each line individually as he wrote the final scene, and later reflected on its moral content that bad people sometimes need even more help than the good people. He said that the one line that makes him most emotional is, "You must be tired."^[16] Itoi felt that the ending's renewal theme reflected his worldview of appreciating our time on Earth in light of the the planet's inevitable end.^[21] Much of the rest of the script was written after-hours at a local hotel where they would continue their work.^[16]

limited edition Deluxe Box Set was produced with a special edition Game Boy Micro and Franklin Badge pin.^[24] It did not receive a North American release^[3] on the basis that it would not sell well. Digital Trends wrote that the game's emphasis on "magical transgender gurus" might have also affected the decision.^[25]

Creatures. Sakai was also understood the game's story intimately, and named the Magypsies after musical terms. He worked to make the music feel similar to previous entries in the series.^[26]