Defending the Easy Ring (Part 1)
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- One ring to rule them all...
Part 2: • Defending the Easy Rin...
Music:
Monkey's Delivery Service - Mother 3
Battle With a Dangerous Foe - Mother
Saturn Valley - EarthBound
Hippie Battle - Mother
Humoresque of a Little Dog - Mother
Twitter: / primateness
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The easy ring is almost necessary for new players. As someone who played Mother 2 first and didn't play Mother 1 until many years later, the increased amount of grinding was very annoying to play through. I can only imagine the amount of new players who was interested in the Earthbound franchise who started with this game but then gave up because they believed it wasn't for them. It's a real shame.
I played mother 2 first, and then played mother 1 and loved it! Prob because it was extremely similar to earthbound even though its hard asf
Bullshit you just suck. Just grind and get EXP.
@@bunsmasterbunny agreed. It’s just like any other RPG. Just grind to get to the correct level.
@@outerspaceman7534 grinding sucks and isn't fun and doesn't excuse the games flaws
@@stagelights_ then don’t play another games. It’s part of them. You lack the patience to play such classics without using some cheat or mod.
My brother in christ, im very glad to have found your channel. I love video essays, i love the mother series, and i love monkey moments. Subbed and bell rang, cant wait to binge ur whole channel 😘
To me the biggest improvement to the battle system from mother 1 to 2 is that if whatever enemy you chose to attack in the next turn dies before the attack, it's redirected to another enemy, one of the most frustrating part of the grinding for me was figuring out exactly how many attacks by which character to do to a specific foe, and failing terribly whenever i met a new enemy, in this game a smash attack by ninten often meant lloyd and ana would waste a turn lol.
Lufia 1 did that too god i do not miss that
I heard final fantasy had this problem too until 3, though it wasn’t localized on the NES except for the NDS remake.
Yeah it's way better. I grinded a lot when I was a kid playing this game, but any time I go back to it now I use the easy ring. Cutting out mindless grinding is ideal, I have less time to play games as an adult
I think there's a lot of vale in playing the game the whole way through without it at least once, like you and I have. I think it's important to experience the game the way it was released at some point so you can better-appreciate the changes the ER makes when you use it.
Im glad to know about this now, ive been playing the games in reverse order since I started with mother 3, and I'll probably use this once I get to mother 1. Mother 3 spoiled me with its pacing and battle system and now the other games feel slow and tedious by comparison. Easy ring probably will correct that.
Since it's optional, do a random commenter a favor and give the game a try without the ring to start. If you really do hate it by the time you get to the cemetery or the zoo, say screw me and put on the ring. I think this game's flaws are blown way out of proportion,but I realize I may be in a minority opinion on this.
@@tatertot64I know this comment is 1 year old, and I didn't previously have anything to do with this comment, but I just wanted to say my opinion. The thing with the easy ring is, I don't think it's a bad addition, but I think it makes the early game just a bit too easy. That being said, the easy ring is SO awesome. Most of the game is just grinding. The easy ring halves that. I guess most of my opinion is the same as in the video, but coming from someone who prefers no easy ring, the easy ring is so useful for during/post magicant, and attracts new players to this game. It really comes down to opinion, but whether you like or hate the easy ring, it is undeniable how much it impacts the game. Btw, I just want to say, I'm not hating on you or anything, just giving my opinion on what you said.
@@BrainChild542 This is a good point! I'm thinking when I have the time, I'll try a run where I use the Easy Ring later on, to see if that really helps mitigate end-game grinding. I definitely realize this is an opinion thing, and that I don't mind grinding as much in this game.
I'd just suggest playing 25th anniversary edition. Fixes a lot of the problems with Mother 1, including heavily reducing grinding. Now, what if you want to play the game legally....
uh...
Why would you want to do that?
*(Sanctuary Guardian intensifies)*
Let's go Teddy best boy shoulda been permanent without glitches.
I'm a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to RPGs. Sometimes, I absolutely adore the punishment and grind of older RPGs, and that was how I first experienced Mother 1. But a lot of the time, I'm more in the mood to just have a relaxing experience, so I definitely do not shy away from lowering the difficulty in those cases. I only recently started a playthrough with the Easy Ring, and it was an amazing change of pace. I love having that option in the game to make grinding feel less like a chore. And gaining EXP so fast also just feels rewarding because my brain likes to see numbers go up, haha.
Amazing vid
Mother 1 is the elden ring of jrpgs
I played this game before it was called beginnings. All I can say is that Im glad they added that cause no sane person should play through the game's original difficulty these days
Luckily for me, I like it when games beat me down to a pulp so I played through Mother 2 and a part of Mother 3 without the Easy Ring just fine.
People complain that Mother 1 is too grindy and hard, then complain about the easy ring taking away that grind...
Honestly, Mother 1 is probably my favourite and I hate how it gets the bad rep of being "too grindy" and people always saying you should skip it.
No. Hell no, the easy ring makes it very enjoyable and fun even for someone just starting with the series.
Let people enjoy games, let people enjoy Mother 1 without the annoying parts, it's a way better game than people think and the easy ring makes those good parts shine, because it doesn't bury them with grinding.
Guys listen grinding is really fun if you think about 🤓🤓🤓
I forgot there was an easy ring. I ignored the one in mother, I wanted the original experience. By far harder to get started in than mother 2 without the ring.
Kirby has no hard mode
Yeah, but still offers challenge in its own right, even if it's on the easier end of the spectrum. Games don't need difficulty levels to be all good, they just need some semblance of stakes.
@@MonkeyNess I get angry when Kirby has no hard mode but I can’t beat mother
I believe the original one from the Game Boy has a hard mode, if you'd like to try that! :)
@@MonkeyNess thanks! I’ll have to dig around my house to find my game boy.
As someone who beat the game without the easy ring (because at the time I did not know how to patch a rom), I can tell you the fabric dungeon and some battles early on can get boss level hard, and the robot boos battle can r*pe ya ass if you are not ready and that make me forgot bits of the story because I waste to much time grinding, same happen with Xeno 2. Persona 1, but then again once you learn to abuse mechanics the only annoying thing is keep battling under level enemies.
It wasn't so bad, when I used the switch rewind feature to cancel any time I got hurt
Is the easy ring in the NSO version? I didn't find it and i kinda stopped with the game halfway through
It's in the Mother 1+2 Fan Translation and some versions of the ROM for EarthBound Zero.
@@MonkeyNess oh so no NSO then? Well shit hopefully I'll pick it up someday
I watched this video before and i when you got to end bit I was like “pfff yeah right earthbound is the best game it’s the best story and best drama there’s a reason we got it outside of Japan. True story I lottery got a cart of Mother 1+2 just to play earthbound. Unfortunately the cart I got had corrupted dialogue and a refuse to play it with that shit fortunately Mother 1 is untouched…and guess what I now agree with your statement full hardily I’m playing it again for my second time now. I still need to find a person who can untuck my cart.
Why he kinda sound like matpat
honestly i find that battles begin to feel like a waste of time and resources when you have the chance of exiting one, taking a SINGLE step, and entering another one, so yeah, easy ring good
I'm happy people who otherwise wouldn't enjoy this game have the easy ring, but I think this game's "nes era bullshit" is blown way out of proportion. If I - someone who isn't a huge fan of grinding - and my girlfriend - who's a total rpg noob - can handle this game to it's ending, I don't think its nearly as bad as people make it out to be. I gave the game a try with the easy ring after I beat it once, and I got to Lloyd in about 30 minutes without thinking at all. If thats what people want out of this game, thats fine. But the fun I found here was with exploration, and giving this game the time of day like Itoi hoped people would. I think this guy would have an aneurysm if he tried a game like The Immortal or Nightshade. To be fair though, so would I.
I too enjoy the game's exploration, and think it has many good (even great) qualities. My claims about "BS" in the game are more referring to the lack of intentional design at points, though I can agree my video does sort of muddle the clarity of that point.
@@MonkeyNess Funny enough I have issues with design clarity with Mother 2. It's those zigzags like at the metal pencil that make me realize that Mother 2 is more fun to me on a first playthrough. I appreciate the stance you've taken with this video, while I disagree with you.
@sheabutter Very understandable (in regards to everything you’ve said.) Thank you for being so respectful of our differences, many have not been as polite as you.
From reading the majority of the comments you're right.
The issue is the vast majority of RPG players are hoarders or going through the motions.
They hoard items and die, or spam attack and die. They don't think.
I've seen so many people say "JRPGs = Grinding!" but so often in videos from those same people I see them in battle clicking the escape button and avoiding fights to the point where if you could "escape" from a boss to win they would.
I actually saw a review for a game... where someone spammed the escape command and the team wide attacking boss 1-shot them and they claimed it was "a difficulty spike" when had they played the game not avoiding every encounter possible they'd be fine.
@@Buglin_Burger7878 Haha oh jeez. Yeah idk. I think it might just be a changing mindset with modern RPGs. I can't help but think of games like Xenoblade that give the player sort of mmorpg hits of flashy moves and loads of damage numbers. I am absolutely not knocking that kind of game, but expecting the same or similar out of games pre-90s is kind of doing oneself a disservice.
Although I will admit my bias to becoming more lenient toward games with high encounter rates and grinding, but to your point, that's half the fun of the damn game lol.
NES and Famicom grinding is not fun most of the time. Honestly Final Fantasy 1 on NES is the peak and only I can play 100 hours a month for fun levelling grinding away. No other on NES. On Famicom Final Fantay 2 and 3 are amazing, but I love 2 the most. First open world RPG where you can level from stat without progresing more than 2 keywords and reach the end village and opening of the end cave. Other RPGs I tried oin NEs are not fun levelling compared to those. FF1 and FF2 on NES/Famicom is peak RPG grindiong fun. Dragon Warrior 1? Tedious. Dragon Warrior 2 to 4? Too expensive in general and too slow and longer than Final Fantasy 1 in eficiency.
If you know what you're doing, you can beat the game in like 4 to 6 hours. The Easy Ring breaks it imo.
I beat the NSO release on the day it came out in fact.
The trick is when you get a new party member to kill the other 1 or 2 off so that new party member gets all the exp. Teleport maneuvering in the overworld and manipping PSI Stones to not break with savestates also makes the game easy without needing the ring.
Absolutely deranged take. Did those mental gymnastics leave you winded?
@@Purble Nope. Again, it's really easy. You just gotta know where to minimize the grinding, and where to get the best gear. H2O Pendants are a godsend.
I might've overstated it, because 2-3 hours is like speedrun time. It probably actually took more like 6 for me, but even then, that's not a long game by today's standards.
Idk why but I love Mother 1 the most. It's the most replayable one of the trilogy, for sure. As soon as you hit level 25 with Ninten, you can beat the game.
@@cullbear55 youre talking about intentionally killing off specific characters and manipulating the game thru savestates. Or you could just equip the easy ring and play the game without all that extra bullshit. The savestate part feels especially backwards. Youre ok with one form of “cheating” but not another?
@@Purble
No, I'm just saying for those that want an official solution provided by Nintendo.
I usually play on an actual NES without the possibility of rewind, savestating, or easy ring. It makes the game too easy having any of those options, basically. I know, sure, it's a quality of life thing or whatever which makes the game more enjoyable for others by shortening grind time, but I enjoy playing the actually intended release of the game without fans or emulation tampering the experience. It's more satisfying that way for me, at least.
The game is supposed to be hard near the end, but the base game already provides players with workarounds such as breadcrumbs and teleport movement in the overworld.
I don't find this video very convincing. Mother 1's auto fight makes grinding much less of a chore, and the earliest you would have to grind is Magicant which gives you ALL the tools you need: A free hospital, the boomerang (second best weapon in the game) among other things. The grinding doesn't take up much time and you can move on and breeze through the rest of the game just fine. My very first time playing Mother 1 I didn't use the Easy Ring and I still don't understand why you would want to, it takes away so much of the game's intentional design and makes the bosses a cakewalk. It doesn't test your resourcefulness either. By the time you arrive at Mt. Itoi you have everything you need to pass it despite it being an untested area, such as 4th D slip and using warp and intentionally bumping to avoid fatal encounters. Call it badly designed but using the Easy Ring is like having NO design, you just mash through the entire game.
Just because Magicant gives you a good outlet for grinding doesn't make it any less grinding. Auto-Fight helps a bit, but it just turns grinding into cutscenes, so in my opinion it's no less tedious, and can even end up using moves and abilities that end up making things take longer, as characters' AI highly-prioritizes healing, so players will end up having to go to hotels more often. As for how much time it takes, that depends on the player, as newer/more casual players are likely unaware of more intricate parts of the game (weather it be things available in the overworld or in the battle system) and I don't think players should have to do research in order to enjoy or complete a game. How much of the difficulty is "intentional" is debatable, as Itoi has said many times development was rushed, and even literally said "Whatever!" in regards to balancing many later areas. I simply disagree that the ER takes away all challenge, as that just comes down to how over leveled you are, as in most cases with the ER if the player just fights the battles that come up naturally without grinding they will be just about the level they need to be. The Dimension Slip is in the game BECAUSE sections are so poorly balanced, so even that is acting as a remedy to the game's at points faulty-design.
Yeah no this argument is "I personally didn't mind it therefore everyone else should be forced to play the way I did, because my personal feelings are the standard by which all games should be judged."
if you need the easy ring, get it.
if you need to use keepinventory, use it.
if you have difficulty in a game and need to lower the difficulty, do it.
"games are supposed to be fun, not stressful"-somebody on the internet
I actually first experienced the game with the Easy Ring! Totally agree with this vid lol, it made my first time with the game a lot of fun. I recently beat it on NSO as well and by using save states to really succesfully grind enemies I actually had a decent time. If I were to choose how to play it again though, I think an Easy Ring playthrough just makes the game more fun.
Honestly he makes a very good point at the end.
I can't believe I couldn't realise the fact that mother 1 is the best because it has Teddy.
For me personally, the easy ring is definitely the way to go, I used it as well for my first playthrough and it was very enjoyable :) just imagining having to grind, fight very unfair enemies, terrible balancing and an extremely high encounter rate is just painful.
The game doesn’t require grinding, the balance is fine, and the enemies are fair. Random encounters are valid.
@@bunsmasterbunny clearly you havent played the game
@@bunsmasterbunnyPlease play Mother 1 and get back to us on that.
When I first played the game, I didn't use the easy ring. I bought the game on the Wii U Eshop. It took me several years to beat, not because it was difficult, but because I got lost. I eventually beat it with a guide, and a hell of a lot of save states. It's not as hard as people say. It's grindy, sure, but I beat the game without the ER on my first try at level 30. (Extremely underleveled for those who don't know.) It's not as good as the others, but if you haven't yet, it's worth playing.
I think people blow this game's flaws way out of proportion. I mentioned in another comment that I'm glad that the easy ring let's people who would otherwise dislike this game have a good time with it, but I worry that people haven't given the original version a chance.
a lot of the game's issues is at the very beginning where you don't have any skills or party members, (which is why grinding with Pippi until Ninten is around level 9 is worth it). Ninten gets a LOT of utility skills which outclass even his offense a lot of the time, Loid is great when you are able to afford his Plasma Beam and Super Bombs, or if you get lucky, his flamethrowers. Also I even found myself using the super spray a few times. Ana is a pretty consistent damage dealer once she gets PK Beam beta (I couldn't find uses for PK Freeze or Thunder betas tbh) She also gets PSI shields which cut down ALL damage in half, and eventually gets PowerShield, which makes you immune to damage except for PK Beam gamma for only 9 PP.
Currently just got to the healer's house after Mt. Itoi's beginning section and have been using for battles with 3 or more monsters (or that cerebrum monster), PK Freeze gamma on one while Teddy and NInten beat down the other monsters and can clear battles in 2-3 turns and I use PSI Magnet during the battles with the BlueStarmen to restore Ana's PP.
This has been one of the more fun RPGs I've played in a while because you are rewarded pretty heavily for strategically using special skills/magic.
Also Teddy + Offense Up is a god and I wish this game had 4 person parties instead of kicking Loid to the curb.
It’s not grindy. You can beat it at a low level 17. It’s also not easy to get lost in.
@@bunsmasterbunny"you can beat it at a low level 17" Haha, you are SO funny. In all seriousness, if you are at level 17, then you MAYBE finished 1/3 of the game, you have obviously not played this game before.
@@jeremyabbott4537Yeah the hard early game is a problem that is also in earthbound and is mitigated once you get a second party member.
With action games of the time like castlevania and ninja gaiden people who play them get better over time so i can justify the decision to make them extremely hard.
With RPGs being hard is not the issue, if you put a few hundred hours into grinding the biggest noob can play through them, that's why proper balancing is more important there.
Grinding for 4 straight hours and still getting your party oneshot isn't fun, the question shouldn't be about hard or easy, it should be about good and bad design and balance which this game just didn't really have
Completely agree!
I"m currently playing the first game and I agree that the game can be a bit grindy, but I feel its positives outweigh its negatives (also the game has Teddy).
Also the autofight feature is great for fighting weaker enemies and far more useful in this game then earthbound.
I agree the positives outweigh the negative, the point of this video though was to just zone in on the balancing aspect of the game, and how many are neglectful of a possible remedy to it.
I can’t wait until itoi releases the first and only Mother spin-off game: Teddy’s Treasure Quest.
@@robertwyatt3912 I am on the hype train for that
@@robertwyatt3912 then we get Jeff's... uhhhhhhh... School? (HELL NAH PICO'S SCHOOL)
@@marsybarzTony: No Jeff! Put down the Death Ray! NOOOOOOOO
I actually had a really good time with mother 1.
Though I played it on gba with the mother 1&2
I found it very fun and perfectly challenging. I had to look up a few things though with the melodies. The cactus, bird, and something else I struggled with. But beyond that I never really farmed. I just spent so long in every area that I ended up fighting a lot of monsters. And the only time I ever grinded is for several minutes when I got a new party member. I actually like mother 1 more than earthbound XD
I literally just finished mother 1 for the first time last night, great timing lol. I played the nes version with the tomato translation patch, I think the GBA OST sounds atrocious unfortunately
and yeah I definitely felt that the high encounter rate felt like filler to make the game feel longer (and it still is the shortest in the series) I'm just either auto battling or using defense up B/offense up on ninten, then auto battling. I didn't have to do much grinding, but that's probably because I never ran from any battles aside from mt itoi where I was spamming 4th D slip to avoid the grizzly bears.
I'm really into classic dungeon crawlers though so I weirdly enjoy the mind numbingly constant encounters, it's sort of relaxing.
Might have to make a video discussing the series's Auto-Fight feature.
I mean HONESTLY, can you even REALLY call Earthbound and Mother 3 good games?
...
Neither of them have TEDDY, Mother 1 is clearly the best
Teddy IS my mom
Video essay on this coming soon
@@MonkeyNess bestie we need that video essay
I personally think Earthbound is superior because it has
FRANK.
I used Easy Ring up until Thanksgiving, by then the game's difficulty was just right for me. I love it
only issue with teddy is that he doesnt stay with you *forever*
but yeah, i beat the game without the Easy Ring on NSO, but one day if i can stand M1+2's terrible gba "music" ill try it out.
The terrible GBA-compressed music really is really more of a problem for EarthBound.
@@MonkeyNess i guess yeah
maybe my ears are just too picky (omg picky!)
Gonna be honest while mother 3 is my favorite game of all time, I remember beating earthbound zero prototype rom before the first mother 3 translation and...the real memories I had about the game were about cruel moments like the church town
I first played without the easy ring, and I had a great time with the game. But I suspect that's mostly because I had already played mother 2 and 3 many many times and I kinda knew what I was getting into, so it didn't catch me off guard. By the end of the game, the enemies were so ridiculously strong that once teddy left my party, I would literally just 4th d slip out of every single fight because actually attempting to fight enemies was pretty much guaranteed death. Thankfully you don't really ever have to actually hit giygas to beat him, so I was able to barely sneak my way to the credits. I can't fault anyone for using it, I am sure it would make the game more fun lol
I recently beat this game on the Switch, and I gotta say: I actually like it quite a bit more than EarthBound. I decided not to use save-states to preserve the difficulty and had a blast with it. I find it better than EarthBound because the game actually has many interesting opportunities to do things out of order (without glitches!). For example: you're typically supposed to get Lloyd first, but you 'CAN' immediately rush to Snowman on a suicide trek instead to recruited Ana first. Also, Ana is stupid strong and is the best character in the game by far with the three speed capsules.
I think you can't get to the trains if you don't recruit Lloyd
@@imwastedhere You can get their without the trains by just going though the tunnels buts its super dangerous.
@@luosiger yeah but it's going to be a hassle in my opinion is not worth it for the sake of playing it's interesting that you can do it
When you like Mother 3 or 2 you feel good but you didn’t even think about Mother 1’s TEDDY!
Mother was an amazing game. For its time. The problem is it hasn't aged well. Mother isn't a challenging game, it's a slow game. Most people will want to play it for the story more than anything.
The Sega Ages version of Phantasy Star also has a similar mode (reduces enemy encounter but severely boost Exp and money. And it has a map, so it's the ultimate way to play the game.)
It really does make the game far less of a pain.
A more extreme example is the massive rebalancing Dragon Quest I and II got. Which, at least for 1, include massive Exp Boost.
This reminds me of when i started Persona 4 Golden on merciless. Like half an hour in a said out loud " this isnt fun" and started a new save
This is a good video
I don't have anything funny to say, this is just a really good video
Thank you, Todd!
I have to collect gameplay footage of mother 1 for a show. I'm definitely using the easy ring version out of simplicity and accessability.
Jeez raw Mother 1 is brutal
I personally recommend the 25th anniversary romhack these days. Rebalances the game, updates the graphics, retranslates it, etc
My first playthrough was “legit” without any hacks or savestates and I’m definitely going to be using the easyring or an equivalent for subsequent playthroughs.
im really a man because i played earthbound zero for the first time without easy ring but a little man because i was playing with nes.emu fast forward option enabled to get exp easy lol but speaking seriously THE FINAL PART OF THE GAME AT MT. ITOI ITS INSANELY DIFFICULT even at level 50 i had so much troubles with all enemies omg and without memory chip of gba remake mt itoi its very VERY painful
I have yet to tackle Mother without the easy ring but with it being on NSO, I'll definitely do so eventually
I had no issues with levelling up-in fact early on i spent too much time wandering and ended up fighting so much i was severely overlevelled. I just couldn't stand the constant battles that were over in one hit beacuse of my stupid high level so i ended up taking the ring lol
I started playing it on my Wii in an emulator, then i started playing and immediately i started to look for a fix and i found the 20th anniversary mod thing.
Less random encounters, revamped map and graphics, when you encounter a character they are not level 1 instead they are about your level.
currently playing doom 2 for the first time on hurt me plenty so its funny to see the comparison to it in this video. i consider myself a hardcore gamer and try to play on normal difficulty.
i beat this game on FC emulation and some time after magicant 1, i downloaded an easy patch that does much the same thing. and thank goodness i did because i still had to grind for mt. itoi. i've beaten ninja gaiden 2 without savestates, yet i couldn't bring myself to grind a FC RPG because it's terrible and the worst thing ever. pro-easy ring from a pro-gamer.
WOOO TEDDYYYY YEAHHHH!!
The emulator I downloaded Mother 1 for only has one turbo mode and it goes at like 4000% speed, it makes the game far less grindy, you step out of your house, have an epileptic seizure, and then you're level 20, and it only takes like 5 minutes of intense visual pain in the first area
In my opinion, if you're looking for the best possible Earthbound Beginnings Experience, times 40 speed is the way to go
I played the game now on Nintendo switch online and the game was ridiculously hard, without rewinding through mount itoi I know this would’ve taken me another week at least
oh there's an easy mode? I need to get that to reduce the grinding, I took a break from playing because of that
you people play video games? my only exposure to Mother 1 is the novel
Earthbound 0 was the first one I played and I gave up a lot before equipping the Easy Ring. The game is pretty fun when you can walk past your house. I'm playing through Mother 3 now
And this is all why I always play the GBA version
I was confused because I never found this item in the NES version. Turns out it's exclusive to the GBA version.
@@X2011racer it’s exclusive to the GBA fan translation.
I would hate the easy ring in any game beside of mother 1
Nah, this game is easy if you just never run.
Yeah, but the pencil Eraser joke is superior!
It's in Mother 3
I do enjoy the Pencil Statue a lot, just used that picture to visually demonstrate my point, as the Octopus/Pencil change is one of the more well-known localization differences.
i originally stopped playing just after i met ana because of the grinding, im glad the easy ring exists now
"The only cool guy with a katana"
You just mashed those nuts into paste.
I never liked this game. I wish they'd remake it.
Atleast were getting that Mother Encore remake right?
I played it first without the ring, now i prefer it
Robot alien
Easy ring players = Baby
Vanilla EBB players = Teddy
Teddy's an Easy Ring player, that's why he's so strong compared to everyone else.
would safety ring be a better name?
8:01
Suggestion for modders out there or hell even artist
Teddy in a kimono and a katana. Now that some epic shit
Agreed!
I legit spent like 2 days just grinding before I went to the desert because I was SUPER under leveled.
It was very tedious fighting the same thing over and over and over again, and pretty much everything after the Yucca Desert got ridiculous.
I spent hours of playing solely for grinding, but these guys can beat me in 2 hits, I hated that.
I’m glad to have experienced the game and beaten it!
Level grinding is the main reason I struggle to enjoy JRPGs as an adult. They have to have a really compelling style or some game mechanic that make them stand out, or else I will lose interest.
Because level grinding isn't a challenge, it's just a time waster. In most cases, it makes the core gameplay- the combat system- feel like a chore. If I wanted to do chores, I would just clean my house. If I'm gonna play a game, I want to enjoy the majority of my time playing it.
So, it's nice when "easy" modes come out for games that have grind instead of a satisfying challenge. It makes otherwise great games even better, without messing with the artistic merit of the game itself. Making a turn-based RPG satisfyingly challenging is very hard, and many classics mess up the difficulty curve.
But most don't require grinding.
They require either thinking or stop pressing the "Escape" button and start using your items and magic.
I agree with the rest of your comment but the first sentence baffles me. Most JRPGs don't require grinding, in fact it's usually only the ones widely considered either bad or poorly aged that do it at all.
What is Easy Ring?
I really hate playing Mother 1 and 2 despite how much I like everything else about them besides the combat. Mother 1 is just slow old Dragon Quest type combat. In Mother 2 most the game you don't have enough health to actually get use out of the rolling health meter, or enough of a level advantage/proper positioning to use insta-kill. It feels like Mother 1 didn't do enough to set its combat apart and Mother 2 didn't lean enough into its own unique combat identity. Mother 3 I feel hit the nail on the head with the reusable unique character abilities and rhythm combos and so much more, making it truly stand on its own.
The rolling health starts to matter in about Threed or so. How far have you gotten?
@@superwooper5210 I've played all the games fully
If I ever get around to Mother 1 I'm 100% putting that easy ring on. Nothing to be proud about with beating a BS NES game that requires crazy grinding, I'm just here for the story lol
Have you ever played the NES Dragon Warrior games?
The first one. Playing the second one now, will cover them in a future video.
@MonkeyNess After I first played the second one, I kinda had an epiphany about Earthbound Beginnings. At that point I truly understood the minute details on just how the game was designed as a parody of other RPGs at the time, as the similarities with Dragon Quest/Warrior 2 specifically are insane.
Wasn't the easy ring only added in the GBA version by Tomato?
It’s been patched into the NES ROM too, though I had my explanation of it a bit backwards.
@@MonkeyNess Oh interesting, I never actually knew that. The version I played back in the day on NES was an exp hack that doubled the amount of exp given, and it was STILL hard as hell. I think it's just an old game that's fundamentally flawed, but people can still like it.
In many NES rpgs the best items were found in dungeons though. In final fantasy 1 the example you used here what you're buying late game is mostly some spells and potions. The only good equipment you would buy late game are the Cat Claw and the Protect Ring. I will grant you that a new player especially at release may not have known it though.
My first time playing MOTHER was back in 2016 using the Easy Ring (I played Earthbound pretty much immediately after, and I still haven't played past Chapter 1 of MOTHER 3). I ended up playing through almost the entire game in one sitting, and it immediately became my favorite game at the time. Over the next few years I'd replay the game a few more times, eventually getting it on Wii U and later modding it onto my NES Classic. It wasn't until last year I actually beat the NES version. Overall it was a worse experience than the fan translation, though the better visual and audial quality was nice. The official translation, while not lacking personality, just felt lacking in many key moments compared to Tomato's translation.
Oddly, the grinding never bothered me while playing, even though it's the reason I stopped at Mt. Itoi when I played on Wii U. Maybe it's just that I had stuff to listen to while doing it? I'm not really sure. I do think the Easy Ring made the game a better experience, though after a certain point I remember it making the game a bit too easy for my liking.
I still haven't played the 25th Anniversary Edition, mainly because I'm not really a fan of the changes to the graphics. Based on what you said in Part 2, it seems like something I'd enjoy, not having a long grind or a huge drop in relative difficulty after I think Duncan's Factory? The fact that it uses Tomato's translation is probably it's best feature as far as I'm concerned.
What i like about this game is that the overwhelmingly difficult encounters later in the game can be countered by some of the most OP PSI in the series. Grizzly bear 1 shotting your party? Just 1 shot it back with beam gamma. PSI resistant enemies still 1 shotting you? Well they can't resist PSI you cast on yourself so just supershield and they can't do shit. And for ppl who haven't tried it or played this game, this supershield is functionallly identical to the supershield that's on the first phase of giygas in earthbound. Full party of final starmen spamming beam gamma that goes through supershield because it's an instant kill? Just fire omega and kill them all instantly (though it takes a bit of grinding to get that one). At higher levels in this game you become so strong that the problem turns into how many encounters you can win before you start having problems.
I played and beat the game even before Beginnings but I understand the appeal of the easy ring and honestly if I were to play the game again I would use easy ring.
need to try this out. mother 1 is still the only one in the series i haven't beaten because the sheer difficulty put me off so much, which left me kinda sad
I almost agree with everything you said... except with the part of the easy ring getting obsolete. It's stats are equal to the highest defense giving equipment. All you get for trading for the highest level gear is... more encounters and less EXP and money.
I still played both with and without and I can say it's the same defensive stats. Once you equip it, there is no tactical reason to unequip it
Great video! I hope you make more interesting MOTHER content!
I actually make videos exclusively about the Mother series and monkeys :)
@@MonkeyNess LETS GOOO
I played the game on the NES online thing and uggghhhhh it was pain
Mt Itoi was awful to play since many enemy’s just one shot you
The easy ring is a must have if you're playing the first time when you start getting use to the game you can start playing whit out the easy ring. Mother 1 has a difficult spike out of nowhere even if you get teddy he's a temporary member. Nintent doesn't has any attacking psi and he fairs ok but he starts falling a part about the last portions of the game if you don't grind. Lyoud is a mediocre character he doesn't has anything going on big bottle Rockets don't exist so his availability is bad. Ana can be a monster whit pk bean and freeze but you have to go out the way to catch her up to the rest of the party she is also very frail which means she can get KO by any enemy. Bottom line use the easy ring it makes the game more enjoyable
I played the game with no save states and no easy ring because NSO. It was fun sometimes and memorable but it was annoying allot of the time
W video
"If you can't lose what's the point of playing".
Animal Crossing and similar games: "Am I a joke to you?".
Lose ≠ Dying.
The challenge from Animal Crossing (for example) is attempting to collect whatever it is you so desire; the fish, bugs, furniture, clothing, etc.
In this sense you can “lose” by missing out on opportunities or chances to attain them, even if you’ll eventually get another chance.
Go to the moon buddy
I’m subbed
Thank you!
@@MonkeyNess np~ Keep spreading your love for Mother to the world!
do you work as a game reviewer by chance?
Nope, but analysis of game design has always been an interest of mine.
@@MonkeyNess ok thanks
If you fight many enemies, you only get the EXP of one
i used the easy ring back when i was 15 starting the mother series for the first time!! and keep in mind that this was a few years before eb beginnings came out on the wii u; eb0 gave me such great memories at the time and it made my gaming experience so much more fun, at the time i actually did not know that the easy ring was modded considering that i DID patch the game with the translation
im 23 now and i beat the NES game itself recently without looking up any walkthroughs remembering my knowledge from that last playthrough (8 yrs ago), it required a lot more grinding than i remembered of course lol but overall i’m so grateful to have been able to use the easy ring back then which made me love the first game so so much!!!
WELL… the only thing i looked up on my second playthrough was information about the dragon in magicant but THAT WAS IT I SWEAR
I'm not trying to be a dingus here... But like... When I played mother for the first time I genuinely didn't have the easy ring in the game and I didn't think it was a difficult game. There wasn't a grind because the way the game lead me kept me not only interested in the game play but also invested in where I was going. I don't think that this item is a bad idea.
Everyone's experience is different! Glad you had a good time with the way you played!
I forgot to withdraw money to buy things at Fourside Dept. Store, Paula was kidnapped and i was thrown into a "i dont want to play anymore" meat grinder
It's inconvenient, but the arms dealer in the desert sells items that can make Jeff very helpful in that area.
What about the "Beginning Ring"?