Hobonichi’s “Eight Cubes” are eight acrylic cube recreations of the Your Sanctuary locations from MOTHER 2.

Interview with Mizutani, Creator of the Eight Cubes

The following is a translation from the Hobonichi website. This translation is by EclipseMT. Please credit Mother Forever and EclipseMT if you report or repost this translation.

The precious eight Sanctuaries have been enclosed in a cube.

• Produced from the creation of a MOTHER fan.
  Eight Cubes
  To be released on 11:00 AM on August 8, 2022 (Monday)!

“Eight Cubes” – the eight power spots that were introduced in MOTHER 2, replicated inside acrylic cubes – will be released in August 8.

The Eight Cubes were announced on Twitter as a commercialization of the works of MOTHER fan “Mizutani senpai,” the first attempt of such a product.
The scenes depicting moments where the characters are standing in these locations as you play MOTHER 2 were converted into a diorama.
This is an item that can be used as a room decoration, where every time you witness it, you will be able to clearly remember the story of MOTHER 2.

Some differences are present, such as changing the diorama elements from the original paper to acrylic, but with Mizutani lending supervision, the end result turned out well.
In this issue, as we verify the prototype, we chatted a while with Mizutani.

INTERVIEWER: The moment I saw Mizutani’s work on Twitter, I thought it was beautiful and became captivated by it. The whole team got excited, and then asked, “Why don’t you commercialize it?”

MIZUTANI: Thank you very much. I, of course, like this game, but I have always had a feeling where I wanted to cut out the screen of the game and use it as decoration. When I was a kid, I used to take pictures of the game on screen, and then decorate my wall with them. Not only that, I had wanted to make these into physical objects and decorate these into dioramas, but I never knew how to do this. Recently, I got to know a person who creates dioramas, and I saw their work and asked, “Wouldn’t it be great if we made this for MOTHER 2?” Immediately, by myself, I hand-drew it on drawing paper, cut, and then assembled it.
It was a very good feeling.

INTERVIEWER: Whoa, so this was a photo from that time…this is cute!

MIZUTANI: I said, “Let’s make another.” At first, I started with Giant Step. When that was finished, I thought, “Now I must create all the power spots!” (laughs)

INTERVIEWER: At that point, did you replay MOTHER 2 and scrutinize all the power spots?

MIZUTANI: Of course. I wanted to recognize that feeling of shock that you get when you see the scene, and I wanted to carefully look at and reproduce the minute details of these places. Because I think this is a game where the atmosphere is important, I created them as I had the feelings immediately after playing fresh in my mind. I have played MOTHER 2 countless times, but to play this game is no longer a pain anymore.

INTERVIEWER: When I saw your creations, I remembered how I had felt when I had played the game, but I guess that is how you had made these.

MIZUTANI: Oh, wow…When I selected these scenes, at first I wondered where I should go. I think the easy thing to remember about the flow of the story of MOTHER 2, or when it is displayed as a diorama, is the Your Sanctuaries, or those so-called power spots. At first, when you clear Giant Step, Ness has no one besides himself with him, but when you go on to the next scene, Ness is beside Paula, and after that Jeff is added, and finally Poo completes the party of four people. And so when I saw these displayed in my room, I thought that the story before and after each power spot was impressively simple to recall, or just easy to remember, and so that was the reason as to why I created the eight power spots.

INTERVIEWER: When we meet MOTHER fans, we always ask this, but what age were you when you first played MOTHER 2?

MIZUTANI: The first time I saw MOTHER 2, my mother was the one playing.

INTERVIEWER: Eh?! Your mother?

MIZUTANI: It was 20 or so years ago. I was in elementary school. At that time, I had not yet touched the game at all. Then, after a while, when Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64 came out, I saw that Ness was in the game, and thought, “Oh, this was that one character from that one game my mom was playing,” and then I felt like starting to play the game myself. And then after that, I would just keep replaying it over and over again.

INTERVIEWER: Over and over again?! You can actually do it on the Nintendo Switch now.

MIZUTANI: Yeah, you could. I’m actually doing it right now (laughs). For MOTHER 2, the impression you get changes every time you play, so it never really bothers you regardless of how many times you do it. Of course, I do it because it is fun.

At first, it was fun to play the game for the story, so I did so as if to get immersed in the story. When I was a high school student, while I was in social clubs…and dedicating time to play the game, it was not just the story, but the enemy characters that had appealed to me, or perhaps “Why did this character have this dialogue line?” or “Isn’t this dialogue line such a unique phrase?”. I think this is a game with very distinctive speech, so because the impression that I receive from this kind of thing changes every time I play, it is always fun to play as many times as I want.

INTERVIWER: What is the scene that you most remember from MOTHER 2?

MIZUTANI: Whoa, this is difficult……It has to be the whole thing!

INTERVIEWER: The whole thing?

MIZUTANI: Yes. About the story, I also like the “so we can save the world” aspect that’s part of an RPG. And the characters are something other than archetypical knights in shining armor, right? I do not think that most other RPGs feature ordinary boys or girls.

INTERVIWER: The setting is not in the middle ages or outer space, but rather in America.

MIZUTANI: Oh, of course!
For one thing, the monsters are not what we normally think of as monsters, but rather dogs and snakes and crows and the like (laughs), and I think that is a good part of the game. Also, it’s rather comical, but because the BGM sets the stage for some shiveringly scary portions depending on the scene, I really like the BGM of MOTHER 2. I actually listened to the soundtrack all the time when I was making these. I like that aspect so much, so really, by and large, “I like the whole series, and of course MOTHER 2!” – is how I feel.

INTERVIWER: Ha ha ha, thanks for that fun story. By the way, can you tell us if you had any difficulties during production?

MIZUTANI: Yes, I did have some hardships during production. That was why I started creating these from Giant step onward, but at first they felt so imperfect and with no special construction, and even though I had made these with the pedestal, a character, and a background for the time being, somehow it did not seem like this was sufficient. When I was thinking about what to do from this point, I came up with this idea to make dents because of the footprint that was in the Giant step scene. Eventually, I thought that it would be good to raise up the ground, and so when I tried it, it was an amazing feeling. Just viewing the scene was a rather drab feeling, but for that reason I made the footprint stand out most prominently. After that, I separated the background elements, so I can make sure that you knew that you were in a place that was a little higher in elevation. It was difficult to deal with, but I enjoyed it (laughs).

INTERVIWER: Yeah. That seems fun (laughs)!

MIZUTANI: Afterward, the most difficult thing to deal with was Lumine Hole, or the part with text displaying on a dot matrix display. I knew all too well that it was shining brightly in-game. I was thinking if it could be done with embedded LEDs, but then it was difficult to recreate the effect inside the case, and so I discarded that idea. Instead, I tried using phosphorescent paint. It’s a little gimmick that I had thrown in. With that feeling, I decided to devise one such element for each diorama and insert one such gimmick. When I think about that, it feels like I had a little difficulty.

INTERVIEWER: Whatever your thoughts might have been, all of these scenes are really beautiful.

MIZUTANI: Thank you very much. When we were talking, I thought that it would have been unreasonable to replicate, but this prototype is also very well-made.

INTERVIWER: In which area were you thinking “It’s gonna be impossible here?”

MIZUTANI: For example, with regards to the footprint in Giant Step, I did not know how I would feel with how the indent was shaped, but we recreated the scene very well.

INTERVIWER: Oh, really? What a relief. Now that I know that release date is coming closer, I am relieved. It makes me happy.

MIZUTANI: I am also looking forward to the release. When I created these and uploaded them to Twitter, I received good feedback. “I want you to sell this as merchandise” was what people have told me directly, but I could not do anything about it. So for those people to to have the opportunity to respond in this manner, I really feel grateful. I do.

INTERVIEWER: It makes us happy. Thank you very much!

MIZUTANI: No, no, it makes me happy about this. It does. Really.

(END)

July 7, 2022

[Size and weight]
Height 90/Length 90/depth 90MM 130g
(3.5 x 3.5 x 3.5 inches; 4.6 oz.)

[Materials]
Diorama: Acrylic, PVC, EVA
Case: Polycarbonate