Shigesato Itoi on Mother 3’s development and much more

Late last year, an event for the Mother series was held in Japan. Nintendo Dream was in attendance, and spoke up with well-known designer Shigesato Itoi.

In the interview, Itoi commented on topics such as Mother 3’s development (cancelling the project on the Nintendo 64 before moving onto the Game Boy Advance), the series in general, the fans, and plenty more.

We now have a complete translation of Nintendo’s Dream’s piece. To read it in full, head past the break.

Graphics and scenario, the secret talk about development of the Mother series

Nintendo Dream (ND): What thing left the greatest impression during the development of Mother 3?

Shigesato Itoi (SI): The moment when we had no choice but to quit development (on the Nintendo 64) was big. It’s not like it was anyone’s fault, but it was perhaps the results of the competence and various balances at that time. Only the vision kept getting bigger, and I felt that if everyone wanted to make what they wished for, it will never be finished.

ND: So Mother 3 ended up getting revived for the Game Boy Advance, but many features from development on the Nintendo 64 were still remaining, weren’t they?

SI: That’s right. There were also many new things added as well. I felt like the Mother 3 that had been inside me was wholly unleashed right at that time.

ND: If it were out for the Nintendo 64 it would have the graphics with 3D polygons, but the pixel art on Mother 3 [on GBA] still had the feeling of Mother.

SI: I think so too. I feel that the one which matches with Mother is pixel art after all.

ND: This notebook for Mother 2 also has a deep taste of pixel art. How did you imagine the graphics for the Mother series at that time?

SI: During the time of the first Mother, I gave out many instructions, but for Mother 2 I told Mr. Kouichi Ooyama to follow the designs from Mother 1. It was really helpful that I could leave most of the directions to Ooyama-san. Since Mother 3 was put together with a new production, at first the atmosphere was totally different.

ND: Itoi-san, what kind of thing was in your mind when you were thinking about the graphics in the Mother series?

SI: I felt like I’ve made a model template with Mother 2. The feel of characters put together by Ooyama-san and Mr. Toshinao Aoki, the latter of which participated in Mother 3 (N64 version), really matched with the Mother inside me.

ND: Were there any points you had problem with on the scenario?

SI: Regarding the scenario, the problems were also fun actually. They kept coming out while I was writing my homework, like what should I do right here. When I solved it, my feeling was like I found a light after wandering inside my own brain. However, when I found things that ‘might be boring’, that’s a different story. So regarding the scenario, I had 2 staff members type what I said orally, but the answer came out at that place.

ND: So you could understand whether it could be accepted or not with live sense.

SI: That was a rather cruel way of doing things. Since I was worried when I asked them they would say ‘It’s interesting’, but from their body languages I knew they actually meant ‘Ah, that’s not good!’ (laughs)

We did that all night while being lodged together for days, but it was really hectic. You can’t do things like that nowadays. And we also had debates.