Ever since MOTHER 3 released on the Game Boy Advance on April 20th, 2006, the most curious MOTHER fans have pondered on what cut content might have been left behind on the Nintendo 64. For those unaware, the third entry in the MOTHER series was originally conceived for the Nintendo 64, and was in development for six years before being canceled on August 22nd, 2000. While the story and characters remained unchanged between the two versions, many details were revised or completely cut out. One particular example would be the disappearance of Nana’s father, Papa, who never returned from a voyage out to sea.

However, one of the most elusive concepts left unanswered has always been the appearance of a new species of characters. This was revealed in an interview conducted at E3 1997 with the art director of MOTHER 64, Benimaru Itoh:

“There is a Mr. Saturn village, after all. The valley appears too. In addition to Mr. Saturn, there are other characters bound to make you cry. Mr. Saturn was originally created from Itoi-san’s doodling, and these new crying characters were born from that as well. It’ll spoil the fun if I say too much, so I won’t reveal more about it. But, I believe these are characters with a personality just like Itoi.”

Unfortunately, this interview wasn’t previously translated. Those aware of this information were left speculating nonetheless over what sort of creatures could accompany the Mr. Saturns! With the game sadly canceled twenty years ago, nobody ever thought we’d get a glimpse at these strange creatures…until now.

When it was announced the MOTHER 64 enemy designer, Toshinao Aoki (who is an extremely successful manga artist today) would be creating a comic for Pollyanna, some hoped that MOTHER 64 content would make an appearance in some capacity. Their prayers were answered when the book was released, and it indeed included a couple of pages dedicated to the game! In Aoki’s comic, Ness visits a hole-in-the-wall corner store, where Aoki’s persona is working the desk. The two exchange stories of their past adventures, with Aoki detailing…

“An adventure huh… when I was your age, I had one of those.

I went through the forest

And ran into monsters…

I snuck into a strange facility,

met strange creatures,

and got chased by the Pig Gang…”

As you’d expect, Aoki’s adventure is accompanied by some charming new art of MOTHER 64 environments and characters, such as the Pigmask Army. As exciting as it was, the community became puzzled by the appearance of a small bear-like creature, with a leaf on their head. Many began to question whether or not this was a character from MOTHER 64, thus immediately fans shot the question to Toshinao Aoki on social media! Our very own staff, Echoes and Kody NOKOLO, asked for the name of the character and whether Aoki designed them for the game or not. Gratefully, Aoki did respond, revealing this to us:

“Yes, I did (design them for MOTHER 64). The name of this character is “Yottore-san (よっとれさん)”.”

The case of the strange new species has finally been solved a whopping twenty-three years later since Itoh spoke about them! According to Kody NOKOLO, “…its name could be related to the term “Yochore (よっちょれ)” which basically is a word related to dancing.” Yochore is a type of group slide dance performed by children, and has much in common with the Osohe dance seen in the final game. Kody went on to speculate that perhaps these characters were intended to teach the infamous Osohe dance, but that’s sadly left for the fans to only theorize. 

You could only imagine the excitement in the MOTHER community when this information was given to all of us. Fans immediately began creating some wonderful and charming fan art of Yottore-san. We were blessed with: full polygonal models from PolyGarrett and Retro64, doting sprite art from Sam the Salmon, and loads of traditional art from members such as Jonova, 8lackSphinx, Park and Falcon. There’s no doubt now that Yottore-san is here to stay as a symbol of the community, like the Starmen and Mr. Saturns have always been. It’s a testament to the courage of the MOTHER community, never being afraid to reach out to the creators behind the series in asking questions about our favourite games. In special cases like these, that curiosity is awarded! 

Although Yottore-san never made an appearance in the final version of MOTHER 3 on the Game Boy Advance, they fit right in beside the many cute species you meet in the trilogy. Be sure to give them a warm welcome, as we can expect more fan art and tributes to this wonderful discovery in the future. Thank you, Toshinao Aoki, for providing this information to the community. It’s made this year all the more brighter for us MOTHER fans.

Flint mingling with the Yottore tribe. Modeled by our very own PolyGarrett.

Some sprite art of Yottore-san drawn by Sam the Salmon!

Yottore-san proudly standing in his village, as drawn by Jonova.

Mr. Saturn and Yottore-san finally meet! Modeled by Retro64 of the Smash Remix team.

Lucas gives Yottore-san a widdle’ pat on the head, as drawn by 8lackSphinx.

Falcon drew these wonderful sketches of Yottore-san and his friends!

Special thanks to Lone for translating Toshinao Aoki’s Pollyanna comic, and the many artists who gave us permission for sharing their art!