Prerelease:Mother 3/Early GBA Development

This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Mother 3.

Early Development

Miyamoto's Proposal

In an interview with Game Center CX in September 2019, Shigesato Itoi revealed how MOTHER 3 on the GBA first came to be:

Itoi: ...Then one day I went to Kyoto for something else, and Miyamoto, Iwata and I got in the car to go out to eat together. The moment we got in the car, Miyamoto said, “So about Mother. Are you against making it for the Game Boy?” I just said, “Well, I’m not against it...”

Kacho: The Nintendo 64 and Game Boy have totally different ROM sizes, don’t they?

Itoi: Completely different. “If you’re okay with it, I think we could pull it off through pixel art,” he said. We had come up with a really interesting world before Mother 3 went under, so I did have a desire to try to see where it would go. I said I’d think about it, and later was asked to meet with the team one more time.

When development began at Brownie Brown soon after reuniting with the original team at HAL to discuss the revival, Itoi recited the story to the new team. He admitted to Kacho that he improvised new details along the way:

Itoi and the development team at Brownie Brown. (non-contemporary photo)

Itoi: ...Once we started the project up again in earnest I had to get serious and write the story all over again, since there were a lot more events I wanted to sprinkle in.

Kacho: Did you do all that yourself?

Itoi: For the most part, I devised the story and then explained it to the team. Some of it I imagined while I was in the middle of explaining things.

Art Direction

Since MOTHER 3 became 2D sprite-based title in the end, all the art that was done for the N64 was scrapped and needed to be reimagined. Naturally, this was not an easy, straightforward task.

In an interview published on the Hobonichi on April 24th, 2006, Itoi spoke about the difficulties in trying to discover the art direction for MOTHER 3, "...when you create something new, naturally it’ll always be different. We tried, and tried, and no matter what it wasn’t coming out right."

Itoi reafirmed this was a rough period of development in the aforementioned interview with Game Center CX:

Itoi: ...So we ended up making another team. We gave up entirely on making it in 3D, but we had a really hard time reimagining all the art as pixels, so we were stuck in a lot of back-and-forth about how to proceed. Once we decided on the art style and backdrops, we were finally able to begin.

Masahiro Sakurai even spoke about this challenge in one of his Famitsu columns:

"In the early stages of the GBA version’s development, the graphics weren’t based on MOTHER 2’s at all."

After much trial and error, Itoi realized the best idea was simply to follow in the footsteps of the previous games, "It was then I realized, “Let’s just follow the tone of the MOTHER series.” After I made it clear we were going to follow the tone of the previous games, it was only a matter of making adjustments to the art. In other words, it was like we finally had a ruler for our drawings."

Nobuhiro Imagawa replaced Benimaru Itoh as the art director for the GBA version, taking creative freedom in redesigning all the characters. Although, early on some remnants remained from the N64 version, such as the "pig faces" seen on all the Pigmask's machinery.

A lot of experimentation was done by Imagawa in figuring out the art style for this new version of MOTHER 3. Before drawing the sprites, he'd sketch out a rough design on paper in order to discover the character's expressions before converting them into sprite format. Below is a gallery of his early concept art, which he shared on Twitter in the summer of 2020.

Akiyuki Suzuki (Event and Battle Designer) also posted concept art around the same time, & continues to do so on occassion.

At the end of the day, it took over a year to settle on the visual direction for the game.

Concept Art

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  Kameoka. The earliest version of Lucas, Claus, Salsa, and the Clayman's redesign from 2002.

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  Kameoka. CGs of the version's original art-style, much akin to something like Golden Sun, made likely around 2003.

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  Kameoka. Much clearer version of the first screenshot seen in the previous image.

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  Imagawa. Concept of an early Pigmask and Pork Tank. The face on the Pork Tank is reminiscent of the original N64 design, which also had a face.

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  Imagawa. Concept art of an early Pigmask. This design can still be found in unused data from the final game.

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  Imagawa. An early Pigmask Ship design. An unused variant which only hosts one soldier inside of it.

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  Imagawa. Concept art of Wess. Although it's far more detailed than the sprite art, his design does resemble that of the final.

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  Imagawa. An early design for Ionia. Imagawa stated originally he wanted the Magypsies to be more "fantasy-esque". Apparently, he scrapped these designs since they were far too complicated to translate to sprite form.

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  Imagawa. A finalized Pigmask design and an unused chimera.

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  Suzuki. Concept art of an event in Osohe Castle, with a room full of ghosts.

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  Suzuki. Concept art of a bunch of Osohe Castle events. The top one seems to be the fight with Lord Passion, possibly showing the Siren Beetle was usable in the overworld (much like how the Wall Staples are). The bottom left one shows a ghost popping out of a Present Box, and the bottom right one shows a portrait's eyes following the player

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  Suzuki. Concept art of the rat located near Locria's home.

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  Suzuki. Concept art of the Bro Team found in Chapter 3.

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  Suzuki. Concept art of the Whatever enemy.

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  Suzuki. Concept art of an unused chimera, a combination between a Yellowtail Fish & a Radish. It was rejected because it wouldn't fit Porky's taste.

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  Suzuki. Concept art of an unused chimera, called a Tube Blood Machine. A fast moving chimera thats sucks the blood out of its opponents, doubling as a blood donor.

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  Suzuki. Concept art of an unused candle enemy called "Candlefright". A rare Osohe Castle enemy that would disappear in the overworld if not engaged in battle fast enough.

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  Suzuki. Concept art of an unused Flying Snake chimera. It has wings while also having the tail of an ox, designed to bite somewhere that isn't the ankles

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  Suzuki. Early concept for the Zombieshroom. It has an almost chimera-like feel, with it being a combination of a standard Zombie and the shroom. Note the Zombie's design resembles MOTHER 2's much more closely.

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  Suzuki. Concept Art of the Frosted Bun enemy.

Sound Direction

According to Shogo Sakai, music was one of the few things carried over from the N64 version. However, this time around he programmed the music himself without the involvement of Takuto Kitsuta (henceforth leaving Kitsuta's music unreleased). Aspects of how the music transitioned from the N64 to GBA were revealed in Sakai's own MOTHER 3i liner notes. The original Tazmily Village leitmotif can be heard in the second half of the song "Master Porky's Theme". On the matter, Sakai wrote this:

"...However, the melody in the latter half of the piece is the same as the melody in "Monkey Delivery Service" and "Fairies". There was a person who asked me a very in-depth question. They must have played a lot of MOTHER 3, and I couldn’t lie to such a hardcore fan so I answered honestly.

“To tell you the truth, I still have leftovers from the Nintendo 64 days. When we announced the cancellation of development for the N64 on the Almost Daily page, we made it possible to listen to the theme music of Tazmily Village. That’s the melody you hear.”

And he said, “Oh, I loved that song. Why didn’t you use it?”

Again, I answered candidly.

“I did want to use it, for financial reasons. I wanted to use what I could rather than create new songs for the GBA version; in fact, several versions of this song were ported to the device. But when I heard it in-game, it felt too slow and leisurely and didn't fit. Even increasing the tempo didn’t work. The impression from the spacious N64 screen is different from the impression from the size of the Advance screen—in other words, the game screen naturally chooses the songs for me.

How did that song get mixed into the battle with Porky? I can't really explain it myself. In the long history of MOTHER 3, some things get lost for no reason at all. That's all I can say."

When comparing the few tracks that are available from the N64 MOTHER 3, some significant differences can be found from the GBA version. Most notably (besides sound quality and mixing), some key samples were changed in the final release. Between versions, the organ sample used in "Big Shot's Theme" is a prime example. The N64 version uses a Hammond Organ (which was also used in Mario Kart 64), while the GBA version changed this to a Rotary Organ sample.

Big Shot's Theme Organ Comparison

One of the major disadvantages the GBA has over the N64 is a far weaker CPU. Although both systems lack a dedicated soundchip (with sound being handled by the CPU itself), the difference in specs demanded MOTHER 3's soundtrack be compromised in several areas in order to optimize performance on the GBA.

One scene in particular that pushes the system to it's limits is the infamous Wess dance scene - the song entitled, "Open Sesame Tofu".

"...this scene in the game is on the edge of the CPU's (the heart of the Game Boy Advance) processing capacity, and the number of sound channels is at the maximum value. In other words, the limits of the console are being pushed, and we’re only playing Wess’ dance scene. The CPU is screaming at the last possible moment, and I can't help but think it's trying to tell the player something–the latest in technology is fighting a losing battle."

Another song which proved to be a struggle was New Pork City's theme, "Isn't this Such a Utopia?!" Unfortunately, Sakai had to chip away much at his original vision for the song in order to have the game run properly.

"...Let me tell you a little about the inner workings of game production. Initially, there were more sounds in this song. However, as development progressed, more and more objects were placed in the city and more were displayed on screen at one time. CPU processing slowed down and the background music suffered as a result, so one by one sounds were pruned from the track like a crane plucking its own feathers. Isn’t This Such a Utopia?!” was chipped away at endlessly, a bone of contention that I barely managed to have my way with."

First GBA Prototype

An image of the prototype.

Around the time of the release of MOTHER 1 + 2 in 2003, Itoi was presented the first prototype for MOTHER 3 on the GBA, encompassing the entirety of Chapter 1.

The art style and direction still wasn't decided on at this point in time, so it didn't leave a good impression on the team. According to MOTHER 3 Producer Shinichi Kameoka:

“The player response to the game’s release lit a fire in Itoi-san. When he played the ROM we made at that stage, his response was, ‘I knew it, this isn’t it.”

N64 prototype

HAL Laboratory provided a copy of the N64 prototype (among other reference materials) when development of MOTHER 3 was passed on to Brownie Brown. This piece of info came from an interview between one of the game's debuggers, Brendan Sechter, and OkeijiDragon. Here are the snippets concerning the N64 prototype:

"...If you are eluding to the Mother 3 prototype for the N64 developed by HAL, it was floating around the office and used for inspiration. The GBA version of Mother 3 is the same game made by a different developer for a different platform. Let’s just say the development cycle for this game was very, very long."

"Well, the president of Brownie Brown said that if I want to try out the N64 prototype, it’s in the meeting room. I wasn’t a Mother fan, but I was trying be enthusiastic about my position there, so I tried it out. As far as I can recall, it was most of the first chapter (with a very Flintstones feel) and some cut scenes. The game crashed toward the end of the chapter.

When I was looking for the link to event I attended, I saw some screenshots of the N64 version that I didn’t remember. Either I have a faulty memory, or there was more to that prototype than I thought. In any case, it was clearly the same vision as the GBA game. I suspect it is in a drawer or a box at Brownie Brown, unless HAL or Nintendo repossessed the cart."

"Brownie Brown had a stock N64 in their meeting room. The game was stored on what appeared to be a rewritable N64 development cartridge.

The program on the cart appeared to be very much an alpha build. If it had been moderately ready for a release, I suspect it would have been released for the N64. As things were, the GBA version of Mother 3 was pushed out the door as the platform was being buried. I’d say chances are slim to none that the public will ever get to meet the N64 prototype."

"I mentioned the N64 prototype because I want to stress that there is no mystery Mother game was never released. You got Mother 3. When development was handed over to Brownie Brown, they were also given everything they needed to get the job done, including previous reference material. The GBA version is the final draft of a vision that took a long time to get out the door. Count your blessings instead of worrying about what could have been."

Cut Playable Characters

On February 9th 2007, Itoi put up a quiz on his website for those who beat Mother 3 that asks various questions to see if they could answer them all.

Question #7 is very interesting:

According to the quiz, Wess originally used a Thief Jujutsu technique that didn't make it into the final game. However, due to the answer to this question being "None", it's unknown which name is correct. Wess was originally a playable character in the N64 version, so this skill was likely a leftover of that original plan to have the player control him.