Like most of the western world, I played this one after Earthbound, and I'd be lying if I said that this fact didn't influence my perception of them both. I'm usually down to defend games that have retroactively become known as prototypes for their sequels (see: my opinions on Portal 1 & Paper Mario 1) but it's harder to here. Their respective battle mechanics are a good microcosm of this. Earthbound's satisfying sound design, clever flavor text, and strategic rolling health bar successfully come together to make battling enjoyable both on its own merits and as a parody of run-of-the-mill JRPGs, while Mother's spam-attack-to-win battles end up feeling like... ones from a run-of-the-mill JRPG. Stuff like calling your dad on the phone and having to run a hundred yards to teleport are difficult to appreciate here just because Earthbound ended up making them iconic, but, it wouldn't be fair to say that Mother doesn't have its own identity. Specifically after the point where Ninten and Lloyd start bein' friends, the game really takes shape as a true do-it-yourself journey, as opposed to the more linear affair that would follow. There's hardly an inciting incident, railroading is only present in a literal sense, and finding the eight melodies is a scavenger hunt instead of a sequence of events. The humor, too, is incredibly lowkey, mostly at the expense of the player. Only ever being able to hear the first few notes of the most beautiful song ever produced by an NES before getting interrupted by a maniac truck or a Wally. Finally finding that last melody you're missing and being wordlessly mocked by a cactus with the smuggest 12-pixel smile you've ever seen in your life. You gotta man up and learn to laugh at this stuff.