Welcome to the first edition of the Mother 4 Mailbag!

Hello and welcome to a new semi-irregular series: The Mother 4 Mailbag! In this series, we answer your questions about the game! It’s semi-irregular because it relies on your input, so send in those questions!

So, without further ado, let’s answer some questions.

Do they have a chance of really being used, or are you just letting people submit things to get their hopes up?

There is a chance that the submissions will be used. We look at the quality of the submissions and whether or not they fit into what our plans are for the game. In fact, we have recently asked someone to aid in the development of sprites. We asked based on the quality of their work and the amount of apparent effort put into it.

The original intention of the Fan Submissions page was to create a place for fans to show off their artwork or other creations and not to look for potential additions to the game. The section was influenced by the various fan sections on Starmen.net where users can submit artwork, writing, etc. There is a disclaimer of sorts on the bottom of the submit form that details this.

Will the backgrounds in battle be as mind-boggling as the ones in Mother 3, or is the program you are using not able to do things like that?

Yes, we’re certainly able to recreate the signature battle backgrounds found in Mother 2 and 3. In fact you can see some of them in the screenshots, although the screenshots aren’t animated, so they lose a bit of the charm. But rest assured that there will be fully animated mind-boggling battle backgrounds in Mother 4.

As you Might know, Mother 2 and 3 shared Pokey as the villain, main and co-villain. Is it Pokey on this game too or it’s a bad guy that you created?

I think it’s safe to say that Pokey is not the villain of this game. However, the actual villain is shrouded in so much mysteriousness and shadows that we can’t tell you who it is!

Have you thought about creating a guide for this game or will you leave that task up for someone else to do?

We have thought about creating a guide for the game, however it would most likely be just a walk-through. However, that’s not to say that no one can make a guide when the game is launched. In fact, I’d encourage people to!

I have two questions about PSI.

Will there be new PSI powers?
Will old powers be returning?

I really miss PK Beam from Mother 1*

*(I’ve been playing it alot lately)

There will be new PSI powers, and there will of course be some old ones too. Whether or not PK Beam makes it in is a mystery though.

Do you at least expect to the game be released next year? Or will it take more time?
Also, is it going to have any tracking to Mother 3? Or it is going to be a totally different game?

As for a release date, we aren’t going to set one. Setting a release date would make us rush through the development process and could result in a poor quality game. However I’ll give an arbitrary date and say that the game should be out before 2012. So you can play it before the world ends. Yeah. Let’s go with that.

As for whether or not the game will have any “tracking” to Mother 3, that depends on your definition of tracking. If you mean will there be characters and places from Mother 3 in Mother 4, then no there won’t be. Well at least no places. It’ll be a new game with new characters and new places to explore.

Itoi kind of always put references to stuff on the MOTHER games. Beatles, Jazz, Movies and even literature references.

Are you guys doing stuff like that, too? I would love that.

Yep! Pop culture references are a significant part of what makes a Mother game a Mother game, so of course we’ll throw some in.