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None foundFebruary 7th, 2012 | EarthBound 64
The other day, when I was working on my newcomer’s guide to the EarthBound/Mother series and was looking for a good EarthBound 64 screenshot, I decided I’d use one of the many screenshots that Itoi posted when he announced the cancellation. I finally went with this one:

Back in 2000 when EarthBound 64 was canceled, everyone on Starmen.Net was like, “OMG! Onett’s in EarthBound 64!”
But only now do I finally realize that this screenshot is of Tazmily when it gets modernized! Man, I’m slow, it took me twelve years to figure that out 😯
Which got me to wondering, are there any things in the series that took you a really long time to finally figure out?
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49 Comments to Oh-So-Late Game Realizations
Yeah… I kinda didn’t know enemies randomly show up/disappear while off-screen. Took me until the Cave of the Past on my second run of the game to figure out I could just leave and come back over and over until there were less/no enemies. 😯
Well… I only realized years later that King isn’t actually that big of a dog. He looks like one of those enormous, fluffy, furry dogs in the game, but the official artwork depicts him as… a small-sized dog lol
I wish it was released. I mean, who doesn’t love Earthbound in a 3D look? The SNES version was a classic & so was the GBA version.
![]() | Foffano said on Feb. 7, 2012 |
Yeah, same as EBounding. It was very hard to find a good place to run straight until you teleport, especially in Saturn Valley. When I realized moving was possible I already had Teleport B.
And I didn’t know the Skip Sandwich makes you move faster. I never use itens outside of battles… =P
I thought Ness was going to be in Earthbound 64. But some guy on a youtube thread explained that it was actually a prototype version of Lucas.
That the bat that I had equipped makes your hit chance incredibly low -.-. I found out in magicant as well, so i had a hard time getting a new one
![]() | LakituAl said on Feb. 7, 2012 |
For me, it was the fact you could use the Fly Honey against Master Belch. Just imagine how my first battles with him were…
![]() | KingDarian said on Feb. 7, 2012 |
I remember playing around with a piece of software used to rip sound effects from SNES games. I used it on EarthBound and came across a very familiar sounding clip. I realized then that the Cave of the Past was in fact the opening few seconds of “All You Need is Love” by the Beatles, and I was blown away. (but nobody else believed me until that one guy made that detailed analysis of EarthBound’s music a couple years later :I)
1. Cheap bracelets and sandwiches cost more than a show ticket to one of the best theatres in the country (which leads me to believe Eagleland is experiencing some kind of food shortage or other resource crisis)
2. Poo is the only character that has any kind of nose on his front/diagonal sprites. It’s a single black pixel so it looks pretty weird and decidedly un-nose-like if you stare at it for too long
and as an aside, pretty much any of the more philosophical or creepy moments in EB didn’t really impart their significance upon me until maybe two or three years ago when I started to view things more analytically, since having played the game from a very young age I always just took things at face value and was never able to properly feel the impact of moments like moonside, mu training, or magicant
I also thought of one for Mother 3, even though it’s only been three years since playing it for the first time. This was my fourth playthrough of it though, so I still thought it was kind of odd how I never realized it before. Some of the nuance in Abbey and Abbot’s dialogue kind of colours me to believe that Abbot might be a bit of an abusive husband, which I don’t think is really that much of a stretch in a village where there are already two established alcoholics (let alone the series as a whole).
Anything to say about that, mato? I can bring up a few of the instances in the game that made me think that, but mostly I’m just curious if you ever picked up on anything like that having translated all the dialogue from its native Japanese.
![]() | Radiostorm said on Feb. 7, 2012 |
It was years before I realized that having a Protractor and Ruler in Jeff’s inventory does not allow him to repair broken items more easily. Curse you internet rumours! ;__;
I only realized on my secound playthrough of Earthbound that I needed to call Ness’s Mom when he is homesick. Whenever he wouldn’t attack because of that I’d start screaming at the screen “OH MY GOD NESS NOT AGAIN”
Still looks like Onett more than to Tazmily to me, to be honest, and it makes sense due to the screenshots of the destroyed pharmacy and burger shop. I’ve always wondered the tent thing in the background was.
Anyway, It took me forever to realize that the heavy bazooka could be used multiple times. xD I’d been missing out on such a useful item!
I didn’t realize Lier X. Agerate’s name was a pun for the longest time, because I never read his middle initial in my head.
I finally realized on my third play-through of Earthbound, that Poo had a separate PSI menu while outside of battle. That would of been good to know.
Get this. It took me until I saved Paula to realize that I could save at other phones in the game. So I had to walk all the way back to my house from Peaceful Rest Valley every time I wanted to save and had to re-spawn there every time I died.
I know it sounds stupid, but it took me a while to figure out that Master Barf was the same guy as Master Belch. Derp.
@Neko Knight I think I may have been that guy. Do you remember the username?
Does it count if you never figured it out yourself?
I never connected the Mani Mani statue with Gigyas as a kid. I thought it was just there to show that wealth corrupts (Money Money statue).
I also never knew about the Insignificant Object until my billionth playthrough. I thought it was amazing that I could keep finding new things after playing the game so much. Nowadays with GameFAQs and such there doesn’t seem to be more video game rumours or lost secrets.
I think that Skyward Sword’s going to cause a lot of these sort of realizations. There’s a lot of subtleties and connections that people can miss.
![]() | Mato said on Feb. 7, 2012 |
So I’ve been trying to finally figure out what that tent thing in that screenshot is since it’s always been a “what the heck IS that thing??” deal for us oldbies. Then I just remembered that Tazmily had a tent or two in the GBA version too (like where Reggie lives). Duh, I r dumb.
Wasn’t the tent that Reggie lives in not in the main part of Tazmilly Village in the GBA version? In that picture it is in the main part of Tazmilly Village. I can understand wondering why it is there. I didn’t understand why it was there until now.
I wasted all my items and PSI trying to kill Master Belch. And I died anyway. I tried again a couple times before deciding to look up strategies.
“Use the Fly Honey.”
……
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!
Now I wish I’d bought the strategy guide when I bought my copy. ;.;
![]() | Mato said on Feb. 7, 2012 |
blan: To be honest, it’s been so long that I don’t really recall. I haven’t played the game since the patch’s release either, but I’ll keep it in mind to look out for that the next time I play.
PK Rockin: Only because of the way the map system in the GBA version worked. The sheriff’s office was on that screen too, and I’m pretty sure that’d be considered part of Tazmily, as would the retirement home on the other screen.
I didn’t realize until 2005-ish that EarthBound had the tea sequence in Tenda Village
Believe it or not, when I first played EarthBound, It took me a hell of a long time to realise that Mr. Saturn language( font, whatever.) was english. I thought they spoke gibberish. I didn’t realise that til some one was readiing it and I was like ” How are you… wait… OHHHHH!!!!!” I still fell stupid, but it was so curvy and loopy I wasn’t even able to read it!
Also, before I played EarthBound, I loved Super Smash brothers melee, and for some reason, the default music for the Onett stage is a track from Mother 1. For years I thought that was Onett’s music, and I was confused when I first heard it.
![]() | Saturnome said on Feb. 9, 2012 |
Great find, I wondered a long time about this picture (and any other Mother 2 related thing in the EB64 screenshots). Now I wonder if you are the first to find this.
Reggie lives in a teepeee…not a tent. Although these tents are decidely teepee-ish.
As for the location, Reggie’s tent is indeed outside of town. It is near the Sheriff’s Office to the west of Tazmily Village.
I seriously JUST thought of this:
Oh-So-Snake = Osohe Snake
Also, I played through Mother 3 twice, and I only noticed the islands’ shape the second time.
Isn’t snake “hebi”? So it would be Osohebi. I recall that in Tomato’s Mother 2 to EarthBound thingie there was a hebi-heavy pun.
I thought Pokey’s nose was his eye.
I guess I thought he was a cyclops.
![]() | flintsdoorknob said on Feb. 11, 2012 |
>2. Poo is the only character that has any kind of nose on his front/diagonal sprites. It’s a single black pixel so it looks pretty weird and decidedly un-nose-like if you stare at it for too long
Blan, I think you didn’t notice Pokey’s nose either!!
Also you are right about Earthbound feeling a lot different when you are older. The quirky villagers really make a lot more sense. The “cafe” and alcoholic guy wandering around. Everdread jumping off the building resembled suicide or something. Cults. Not to mention the Beatle references and suspicious things like drug use and psychedelic tee breaks.
I think Isaac in Mother 3 actually says he’s going to the mountain to pick mushrooms. I guess they could be edible, but after TaneTane island I’m not so sure! OH and everything about Tanetane island… If you’ve ever been through a depression or hard time in your life you can really relate to Earthbound. Moving out for the first time made me realize how homesick Ness became too. Just the way people behave in Earthbound feel like weird normal real life people…
Als pretty much any trivia related to the game, like music samples. Small details in mother 3 like a little wooden clay guy foreshadowing the clay monsters.
I’m rambling…
![]() | flintsdoorknob said on Feb. 11, 2012 |
In Mother 2 Porkey is a child.
In Mother 3 Porkey’s spidermech is a crib.
He then goes into the Absolutely Safe Capsule which s a womb.
@flintsdoorknob my bad, i should’ve clarified that i meant out of the four playable characters
![]() | flintsdoorknob said on Feb. 12, 2012 |
The Chimera Labratory’s face looks exactly like the Devil’s Machine from Mother 2.
That’s why it sort of looks like a Devil.
And it’s a literal CHimera Monster.
I pooped bricks. Theres a post about it on my blog.
![]() | Kyosuke said on Feb. 16, 2012 |
You can move while teleporting??!?!!?
*tries it out*
*mind is blown*
![]() | Poe said on Feb. 16, 2012 |
LOL kyo u so silly
There are payphones in shops. Since they don’t look like American payphones I thought they were inactive decorations. It doesn’t help that there are free phones in hotels.
Then I played EB0, where there are no phones in hotels. It’s a bit easier to tell what’s decorum and what’s functional in EB0, so I figured out the payphones easily. Then I went back to EB and realized they kept the payphones… despite the fact that they are functionally almost useless.
Cup of lifenoodles revived people… ._.
Why did it take me until chapter 7 to figure that out?!
This has been bugging me for a while. There is a photo of mecha Drago ( I belive it is located here or at starmen.net.) which is labled as mecha drago emeraging from behind the rock. If you actually take a look beneath mecha drago’s eye you have this transluscent figure underneath. I think this is the scene where flint has beaten Drago and his son is protecting him. Heres a link to the GBA cutscene:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p1GnqmSqn0
The cry starts at 4:20 ish
Because when I got SSB I only knew the main Nintendo games, I thought Mr. Saturn was from Pikmin. What? I never knew EB OR Pikmin! (Im glad I do know) 🙂
i’m going to be completely honest. it took me a very long time to realize that one Mr. T. guy actually looked like Mr. T. 😛
The tenda chief has horns. Every time I play I always give the shyness book to the wrong one.
That….makes a lot more sense.
As for EarthBound, it took me several years to realize that you could move around while teleporting. I found out by accident.