The very first interview about MOTHER 64 touches many topics covered in later publications! Even at this early stage in development prior to the official reveal, the game’s producer Satoru Iwata claims MOTHER 64 will subvert fan’s expectations in various ways. He says while the aesthetic and worldview will be preserved, the game will have more unexpected aspects to surprise players who have desired more out of the series.

Itoi’s writing and language is stated to be retained in its purest form, being the most quintessential trait of the MOTHER games. However, Iwata hints many other elements are subject to change: including the contemporary setting and singular protagonist seen in the first two games. On the subject of the 64DD, Iwata elaborates on how it will allow for a more visceral, visually pleasing and fun experience. From the very beginning, you can tell there was a lot of ambition behind MOTHER 64’s development!

Itoi reveals the first details on MOTHER 3 right before its official reveal at Shoshinkai (Spaceworld) ’96, the same month. On the completion of the game, Itoi says “The supporting scripts haven’t been written yet, but all the scenarios are done. The map is done; all that’s left is bringing the characters to life in it. So here on out are the details.”

He reveals that while Porky will be returning, all the main characters are new and have a different outlook on the world. So, Ness and Co. were announced not to be returning in this title! Most interestingly, he states he would love to develop a Mr. Saturn action puzzle game. We’re still waiting.

An interview with Shigesato Itoi on the show Game Catalogue II about Spaceworld 1996.

In this discussion between Itoi, Iwata and Yasuhiro Nagata, many little details about MOTHER 64 are revealed. At the beginning, Itoi cracks a joke “hoping for the game’s release”, and reassures that things will proceed smoothly with Iwata on the team again. The 64DD is once again discussed, Iwata proudly claiming, “It’s all about the ability to overwrite. I want to use the creation of MOTHER 3 to put an end to everyone making the same kind of adventures in all the same ways all over Japan.”

In this interview with Dengeki Nintendo 64, Shigesato Itoi gives the first in depth details about MOTHER 64’s development following Shoshinkai (Spaceworld) ’96.

An interview with Satoru Iwata. Click “Read More” to find scans and summaries of the pages. Full translation coming someday!

In this great and insightful interview with 64 Dream, Itoi opens up about the concepts that inspired MOTHER 64. He describes RPGs as a “road movie”, where you travel and meet different people. In creating Tazmily, Itoi did not envision it as the “first town”, and instead designed it as a field for the protagonist to explore – a sort of “Grand Hotel”.

In this summarized interview with Famitsu, Itoi and Iwata mention Lucas’ new design, talk about the game’s subtitle change, and even accidentally spoil that the game has 12 chapters. Itoi didn’t have the ending written at this point, but did have the final line written, which he seemed to be very proud of. Full translation hopefully coming one day!

An interview with Satoru Iwata. Click “Read More” to find scans and summaries of the pages. Full translation coming someday!

In this interview conducted by Nintendo of America at E3 1997, Benimaru Itoh enlightens details about the many characters that would appear in MOTHER 64. In redesigning Lucas from his previous appearance at Spaceworld 1996, Itoh speaks about Shigesato Itoi not being too fond of his original design and desiring a more “pro-active looking hero.”

Another interview with Benimaru Itoh from E3 1997 – this time with the Nintendo.com team. Itoh accentuates that the 64DD will be maximized to it’s full potential in MOTHER 64. “…Many things that the player does will be written to the disk and this will affect the future course of the game. This will make everyone’s course different.”

A joint interview between MOTHER 64’s director, Atsushi Kakuta, and Satoshi Mitsuhara, the Main System Manager! Here, they talk about their previous experiences at HAL and what lead into the process of developing MOTHER 64. Many laborious experiments were made on their computers in order to figure out gameplay elements eventually featured in the game. Kakuta is confident that “people who aren’t fans of video-games are probably going to enjoy it.”

In this interview, MOTHER 64 enemy designer Toshinao Aoki opens up on his design process for the many creatures set to appear in the game! He states, “There are many types of enemies that are completely unique in comparison to enemies one might encounter in a standard RPG.” Lead Art Director Benimaru Itoh would often create the background details that inspired Aoki’s creature design, “…Without a background, it’s difficult to visualize what the enemies might be. Once I have some simple background details, then I start trying to draw the enemy.” Together, the game’s unique enemies were created, with more set to appear than that of MOTHER 2.

A joint interview between MOTHER 64’s composer, Shogo Sakai and Takuto Kitsuta, the sound programmer! Here Sakai talks about how nervous he was replacing Hirokazu Tanaka, and how he wanted MOTHER 64 to have a refreshing sound compared to the previous games.

An intimate interview between Miyamoto and Itoi from Weekly Famitsu! Here you can learn a lot about their friendship, and how MOTHER was first created.

Right away in this interview we get the age old question: “What percentage of MOTHER 64 is complete?” Immediately Iwata finds it difficult to answer, “…If you look at the scenarios, systems, and maps separately, we’ve gone a long way. We just have to put all of these elements together. It’s difficult to say something like ‘95% complete.’ Simply put, in order for each part to be collected together, the system must be finished up, so from here on in I think we have to continue working on the system.”

In this interview with MOTHER 64’s designer Akihiko Miura, we learn about the transition from the SNES to the Nintendo 64. There were many ideas that the MOTHER team had to drop due to the hardware limitations of the SNES, but conversely the Nintendo 64 allows more freedom. Miura felt thankful about moving to the N64 because of that freedom, yet still acknowledged there were struggles in materializing all their ideas nonetheless.

An enlightening discussion between Shigesato Itoi and Famimaga’s Nae Yuki following Spaceworld ’97! A wide range of topics are covered, not just about MOTHER 64, but also Itoi’s whole career. Learn about how Itoi compares MOTHER to cooking as, “a cuisine with no nationality” in crafting a world that will “make you cry.” Food appears to be a central theme, with MOTHER 64 possibly featuring a “mosaic on the food”, so any type of food could be represented visually. The many characters slated to appear are covered, from the main character’s touching dog – and speaking of the main character, Itoi reveals they will be “at least 15 years old” as they grow over the course of the game. Wow!

Masayuki Miura is an extremely important figure to the MOTHER series, having assisted Itoi with MOTHER 2’s script and even helping direct the localization for EarthBound! Naturally, he carried this role into MOTHER 64, which he talks about in this interview.

This book isn’t centered on MOTHER, it features stories about many prominent game developers of 1998. Itoi’s page features information about MOTHER 64, though that interview and the rest of the book are currently untranslated. A download of every scan from this book can be found on this page for it.

On the first day of Spaceworld 1999, Akihiko Miura was interviewed by 64 Dream which was published in a November issue. Shigesato Itoi could not make it to Spaceworld as he was piled up with work on his blog site, the “Almost Daily Itoi News”. In his absence, Miura read a letter aloud from Itoi to the fans: “Everyone is patiently waiting for us to finish the game, and their support is appreciated. So the feeling in creating this demo version of the game was “everyone is going to play it – so let’s put our all behind it!”

Following Spaceworld 1999, Itoi published some discussions between him and Miyamoto on his blog. Each week a new topic was covered, with this specific post covering the state of MOTHER 64 and some other upcoming N64 games.

One of the last interviews concerning MOTHER 64 prior to the cancellation five months later. Itoi laments that 3D is both a blessing and a curse for the RPG genre, as it allows far more detail at the cost of more fine-tuning.

The ultimate discussion about MOTHER 64 between Shigesato Itoi, Satoru Iwata, and Shigeru Miyamoto. This was published on August 22nd, 2000 – the day of the game’s cancellation.

The staff at Hobonichi played Animal Crossing: City Folk with Itoi and Iwata to celebrate the release of the game. In this excerpt from the several part playthrough, Itoi reminiscences on his initial concepts and ideas for MOTHER 64. He acknowledges that several of his ideas at the time came to full fruition in Animal Crossing, specifically the concept of one town changing over time.

A short, but sweet interview between Clyde Mandelin and MOTHER 64 enemy designer Toshinao Aoki from 2011. While Aoki never played the GBA version of the game, he heard that the story is identical and the music carried over from the original N64 version.

Being immortalized through a video-game is a surreal honor very few get to experience. One of the most famous examples often cited is the Chris Houlihan room from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but little do most MOTHER fans know that MOTHER 3 was nearly added to the list!

This is a translated version of a 2020 interview with the applicant for the “MOTHER 3 Performer Contest” from 25 years ago, who goes by the name MT. The original interview was conducted by the Japanese media site Netlab.

Echoes – Writer 2020-2022

Kody NOKOLO – Writer and Translator

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