61 Frames Per Second : shigesato itoi

Talkin' RPGs With Itoi

Bob Mackey — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:05:00 GMT

Shigesato Itoi, a true Renaissance Man of Japan's entertainment world, is mostly known to us gamers as the mastermind behind the Mother RPG series. And it's his iconoclastic, "outsider" view of the video game medium that makes his projects so unique and cult-friendly; someone deeply entrenched in the world of RPG development is far more likely to make a derivative Tales of game than anything approaching the level of Itoi's imagination. With how creatively successful the Mother games have been, it's surprising that developers haven't tried bringing in more outside artists to derail the tunnel-vision quite a few franchises and genres currently suffer from.

Thanks to Itoi, I was deeply engrossed in Mother 3 over the fall and winter months of 2008, mainly because it took such a different approach than the other Mother games; rather than having a huge, worldwide scope (the usual method of most RPGs), the final entry in the Mother trilogy scaled things down to a much smaller and more detailed world that eventually changed (for the worse) over time. It was a fascinating approach that led me to care more about the game's world and inhabitants, all the way up until the heartbreaking ending.

The reason I've been thinking about Itoi lately--aside from the fact that he's so dreamy--relates to a few translated interviews with the jack of all trades posted by the equally-dreamy Tomato over at Earthbound Central. The interviews may be framed by a larger discussion of Animal Crossing, but Itoi still has a few interesting things to say about RPG game design.

Take his comments about Mother 3's small scope, for example:

That’s when I thought of an RPG in which you stay in a certain town for a long time...

The game would have character relations, and the people would all have their own lives. This way, we could do all sorts of things in the game. For example, someone who recently hung laundry out to dry would be wearing those clothes the next day. I wanted to make an RPG in which you could grow closer to the people as time went on.

Interesting stuff, though I wish there was much more of it. You can read the first part of the Mother-related interview comments HERE, and the second part HERE.

Related Links:

The Mother 3 Handbook: Better than Advertised
Mother 3's Soundtrack Disassembled
OST: Mother

Abandon All Hope: No Earthbound for the Virtual Console

Nadia Oxford — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:14:00 GMT

The Mother/Earthbound fandom is the loudest on the Internet. It's also the unluckiest. Earthbound was a commercial failure on the SNES. Mother 3 just ain't never gonna doggy-paddle its way here (officially). The first Mother game was dressed up for America, but was pulled at the last minute. And now it's looking like Earthbound won't be granted its long-awaited heroes' rest on the Virtual Console.

“Oh God. What now?”

The problem is beautiful in its irony: because it's such a thorough, loving tribute to the best and most creative bits of pop culture, Earthbound is also a fat target for copyright lawyers, IP theft paranoia and the bureaucracy bred by the same culture (that's irony, right? Right?). Earthbound's soundtrack alone uses a lot of samples from other songs, from The Who to the Monty Python theme.

Shigesato Itoi makes no secret about his love for the Beatles, with John Lennon's “Mother” being not only the series' namesake, but its very foundations. Unfortunately, Apple Corps' sense of humour is about as sharp and attractive as a wet dish rag. Every IP lawyer in the world carries a list in his or her pocket that's titled, “I'm Just Not Going To Fuck With This,” and Apple Corps is on the top of each list.

Interestingly, the sometimes-emotional Earthbound supersite Starmen.net is looking at the situation from a very logical point of view:

You might be thinking, "sampling/references aren't enough to bring a lawsuit", and you'd be right. But it's also true that not everything in EarthBound is simply sampled/referenced, and even if the game was technically legal, that doesn't mean lawyers will be comfortable with it. They get paid to avoid lawsuits entirely, not to get sued and then say "here's why this lawsuit is stupid".

Starmen.net also notes that someone, somewhere, didn't want to “play ball” with proposed alterations to the game. Nintendo of America's lawyers apparently offered suggestions on how Earthbound could be made into a “safe” release, but Nintendo Japan wasn't interested in the changes for some undisclosed reason. It's not even known if Itoi was involved somewhere, somehow.

Maybe a clearer reason will be forthcoming, but for now I guess there's not much to do about the fate of Earthbound except cry many Mr Saturn-scented tears.

Related Links:

The Mother 3 Translation: We're Not Worthy!
Earthbound's Secret Evil
Earthbound's Other Secret Evil

Hey, RPG Hero: Go Home and Be a Family Man

Nadia Oxford — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:35:00 GMT

So on Saturday I indulged in my weekly Mother 3 play session--

("Oh God, she's talking about Mother 3 again, you sneak up behind her with this piano wire while I slip this cyanide into Mackey's coffee.")

Please let me live. I don't know when I'm going to be so motivated to pick a game's brain ever again. Mother 3 is unlike any RPG I've ever played--and for the simplest reasons. This, more than anything, is what fascinates me about the game. Shigesato Itoi realises that the easiest way to get people to love your characters is to treat them like human beings. For some reason, woefully few of his fellow RPG designers have picked that up.

It's rare to find an RPG cast that everyone can relate to on a human level. Mother 3's world-saving brigade casts ground-shaking magic and racks up experience points and throws giant staples at enemies like any other JRPG (okay, the staples, not so much), but Itoi wants us to feel close to them. So he draws us in by being realstic about the one thing that unites even Superman with the common Earthling: family.

Here there be spoilers.

(Oh and don't feed Mackey any cyanide. Thank you. His parents appreciate your restraint.)

Parents don't mean much in JRPGs. They usually exist as target practise for bad guys, a catalyst to turn fresh-made orphans into Super Saiyans. In instances where they do survive, they stand blankly in front of the kitchen sink all day, every bit the same plastic "house" accessory as the ever-ticking clock, the endlessly-burning fire and the assembly line coffee table with the book nailed to it.

Or, sometimes a parent exists as a shadowy legend that the hero is destined to chase (sidenote: DragonQuest V did a wonderful, wonderful thing by casting you as an aspiring hero who travels along with his Pop, then grows up and makes more traveling/slime-fighting babies). In short, mom and dad are a springboard to get the main character out of the house and on the road. The standard shonen game hero is usually fine with this, even though he's a little punk who's barely off the tit and has probably never spent a night away from home. In fact, he's rarin' to go without a backwards glance.

JRPGs never grew up, much as fans like to think they went through a growth spurt with Final Fantasy VII. Realistically, they share a lot in common with young adult fiction. The story isn't supposed to be about parents, right? It's supposed to be about the kid, the adventurer the audience is supposed to relate somehow. Parents are old and slow. They're uncool.

But moms and dads are cool. All right, so "cool" might not be a great descriptor, but as you grow older, you start to appreciate the dedication your mom and dad have towards one another. The bond between two people is a deep and ancient thing that has held society together since the dawn of humanity. If you're lucky enough to have two parents who still love each other after years of living together, you're witness to something special. It's not as exciting as a rampaging dragon that only you can stop, but it's still one of the most powerful forces on Earth.

It's Itoi's exploration of this bond that makes Mother 3 special. In the game's first chapter, Lucas vacations with his grandfather, mother and brother in the mountains. Mom (Hinawa) sends a carrier pigeon to tell Dad (Flint, stuck at home) that they'll all be coming home that evening. A forest fire begins a chain of bad juju that prevent Hinawa, Lucas and Claus from coming home. There's one brief scene where Flint, unsure about his Hinawa's whereabouts even after the fire is put out, retreats inside their house and reads over the note she sent. Even with mere sprite graphics and Flint's silence, you can clearly feel what he's thinking.

Eventually, Flint gets the inevitable bad news: Hinawa died to save Lucas and Claus from a nasty creature altered in an experiment and set loose in the mountains. Flint loses it completely, seizing a burning stick from the fire pit his sons are warming themselves next to and pummelling fellow villagers who try to comfort him. He breaks down further when Claus goes missing, and as the game progresses over three years, Tazmily's villagers remark that Flint does nothing except visit Hinawa's grave and search for Claus.

People freak out when their significant other is killed. They maintain fruitless searches for children long after others have given up and moved on. The loss of Hinawa and Claus irrevocably changed Flint the way it would change any human being--so why is this the first time a JRPG has conveyed such a sad but common occurence so powerfully? Why is this the first time, in my recollection, that a JRPG husband has had such a strong reaction to the death of his companion?

I'm holding hope that more game developers will begin to look at their family for inspiration instead of bothering with more corrupt Churches and Governments.

Related Links:

The Reason Why Mother 3 Never Came to America
Mother 3 Makes Me Feel Human Again
OST: Mother

"Have You Heard the News? He's Gay!"

Nadia Oxford — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:19:00 GMT

I'm still not done with Mother 3. You could say I'm savouring it (something Mackey can surely appreciate).

I'm coming close to the end though, so I'm in an adequate position to talk about the game on message boards. This is an especially fun way to waste time because Mother's papa, Shigesato Itoi, never struck me as a convential game designer. He's a writer first, something that I think comes out clearly in his games.

For instance, I was talking with a dapper gentleman in a tophat about some of Itoi's characters in Earthbound and Mother 3. Both games feature at least one gay character. This is nothing new in Japanese-developed games and anime, where gays and transvestites serve the same function as our own laughtracks. Everyone laugh at the flamboyant man fretting over his shoes and dress! It's funny 'cause men aren't supposed to do that!

The difference with Itoi's characters is that the player is not really supposed to laugh at them. They're vital to the plot, but they just so happen to be gay.

Earthbound has Tony, a boy who boards with Jeff in the Winters' School. Even in the game's translation, it's (very surprisingly) obvious that Tony harbours a special affection for his roommate. Mother 3's translator, Tomato, posted a snippet of an interview with Itoi wherein he talks about his decision to make Tony bat for the other team:

"Well, for example, there’s a gay person in MOTHER 2. A really passionate friend who lives in an England-like place. I designed him to be a gay child. In a normal, real-life society, there are gay children, and I have many gay friends as well. So I thought it would be nice to add one in the game, too."

Needless to say, Tony is pretty young, but that's what's cute about his devotion: there's a childlike innocence to it that stays comfortably far away from sexuality. It's precisely like the crushes we had as schoolchildren, before puberty made its noxious presence known. I'm unclear about how many gay men become aware of their orientation before puberty (feel free to enlighten me), but the fact that Tony has accepted his own orientation at such a young age--and the fact that nobody seems to isolate him because of it--is nice.

Even nicer is that Itoi's writing of a gay character is miles above the Internet fangirl standard. Tony loves Jeff, but when the time comes for Jeff to leave, Tony understands and helps him get past the school's gates. There's no extended sessions of weeping and wailing, but there is a certain excitement towards adventure, even if it's an adventure he can't participate in. In other words, Tony acts like a boy who's gay. Itoi didn't just give Scarlett O'Hara a penis and say, "There, I have a gay character."

Now that I've revealed the write-by-numbers method of the yaoi fandom, I'm afraid I'll have to kill you with the Crimson Spear of the Seme.

Mother 3's portrayal of gay characters is more coomplicated and worth an entry of its own. Say, I just gave myself an idea.

Something besides "Chicken for dinner sounds good."

Related Links:

Flying Gay Men Invade Virtual Console
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix C-C-Combo Makers
Penn and Teller to Cover Gaming Violence and I'm Not Sure How I Feel About It

Earthbound in 3D

Bob Mackey — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:00:00 GMT

With writer Shigesato Itoi calling it quits with the Mother franchise after Mother 3, it won't be long until we start seeing remakes--or maybe that's just wishful thinking. As charming as the original Earthbound (Mother 2) was, those 3D renders of in-games towns Onett and Fourside in Super Smash Bros. Melee were enough to make any EB fan squeal with glee. In my wildest of video game-related daydreams, I've often thought of an Earthbound remake, made completely in 3D, with the characters looking just like their little clay models did in the strategy guide.

Some men dream, while others do; like YouTube user cswavely, who has painstakingly rendered a few of Earthbound's town in glorious 3D. Even with that whole new axis, they feel completely authentic to the original game's stubby sprites; but I'll let you judge for yourself:

He also has an awesome version of Fourside:

As well as a super-creepy version of Threed, perfect for Halloween:

Maybe I'm misremembering my adolescence, but it feels like I've really been to these places. I'll have to check the family photo albums and get back to you on this.

Related Links:

Whatcha Listening To: The Earthbound Soundtrack
Earthbound and Back Again
The Reason Why Mother 3 Never Came to America

Mother 3 Makes Me Feel Human Again

Bob Mackey — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Nadia's recent post got me thinking (and sniffling) about a game I've been playing--and a game I hope you're not sick of hearing about yet--Mother 3. The Japanese advertising campaign for Mother 3 declared the long-awaited sequel to be "strange, funny, and heartrending." While I haven't exactly been shedding tears over Mother 3, I can at least say that it's remarkably sad; and shockingly, scenario writer Shigesato Itoi has made his game "heartrending" in a completely sincere way. Forget about melodramatic depictions of flower girls being impaled; the tiny sprites of Mother 3 have been able to convey more emotion than any other game in recent memory.

Spoilers for Chapters 1-3 coming up. This Japanese Mother 3 commercial should provide a nice buffer:

The introduction to Mother 3 presents a pristine, small town where everyone knows your name; and if you've ever played an RPG, then you can probably guess that Tazmilly village will soon be destroyed--hey, it's the oldest of RPG cliches. But the destruction--so far, at least--hasn't been physical (well, for the most part); rather, the story of Mother 3 depicts the chipping away of a peaceful, communist ideology by materialist, capitalist, and hawkish antagonists. As the game progresses, a constant sense of quiet, inescapable dread accompanies the narrative of a naive town slowly losing its innocence.

So far, there haven't been any "Get ready to cry! And...NOW." moments because, despite its cutesy, quirky look, Mother 3 is remarkably mature for a Japanese RPG. Consider your playable characters: the first time you really get to dig into game, you're thrown into the shoes of a blue-collar dad who has to cope with the sudden death of his wife--and his reaction to the news, conveyed only in simple sprite art, is stunning. And the second chapter's star is far from being the RPG staple of a sexy teen with an ambiguous gender; instead, you play a balding loser with a heart of gold, bad breath, and a slight limp.

As for chapter 3, what I've experienced so far has been the world through the eyes of a captive, abused monkey. As much as the word is thrown around these days, Mother 3 is truly unique--and I doubt we'll see such an unconventional video game narrative in quite some time. Now more than ever I understand why Nintendo was so hesitant to bring the game out here; I'm still not happy about it, but I do understand.

Related Links:

When Video Games Make Us Sniffle
What I'm Playing This Weekend: Mother 3. Doi.
THE MOTHER 3 TRANSLATION IS OUT

Note: In your comments, please make it clear if you're going to talk about anything after the beginning of chapter 3. I don't want anything to be spoiled!