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Theory warning: This section contains theoretical information based on the viewpoints or research of one or several other users. It has not been officially verified by Nintendo and its factual accuracy is disputed.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The unused battle backgrounds in Mother 3 are a source of major speculation within the Mother community. It may have been intended to be used in a darker version of the final battle, and is speculated by some to be a representation of how Lucas sees Claus throughout the battle when he was still Masked Man; some believed that it could've been the original background for the second Masked Man fight instead of the background that were seen from Ness's Nightmare from Earthbound or a possible third battle. 

Accessing the battles[]

In order to battle the unused battle backgrounds, in the cheat code menu of emulators such as VisualBoyAdvance, 020047EC must be entered in the address bar and one of its enemy modifier codes must be entered in the value bar. The codes must be put in with 8-bit size and the number format on "Hexadecimal". These codes vary between its numerous forms. They are CB (its standard form, called Dung Beetle), CC (its yellow angel form, called Tent Person), CD (naked Claus, called Snow Bunny), CE (Claus clothed, called Clayman), F1 (Same as Clayman, but with a different background transition, called Sign), CF (an undulating red X, called Vapor), D1 (close-up of adolescent Claus, called Rope Snake), D2 (Kid Claus made of pixels, called Aeolia's Table), D3 (close-up of adolescent Claus outlined in red, called Straw), D4 (a face almost like the Facepunch Studios logo without any facial parts but eyes, nose and mouth, called Vapor 2), D5 (Same as Vapor 2 but without a nose, called Mini Elevator), F0 (Lucas and Claus, called Train) and F2 (naked and albino Claus, also called Sign).

While this code is active, the player must encounter an enemy. Instead of beginning a battle with the expected enemy, the battle with the unused battle backgrounds will appear with a small black square dot in the middle that's supossed to be the enemy itself.

Forms[]

Dung Beetle Battle

The unused boss' Dung Beetle form, casting PK β.

The unused battle backgrounds shows itself as a deformed, robotic version of Lucas' twin brother Claus. Aside from its standard form, there's also a yellow angel, Claus naked (and again later with the albino of its normal form), Claus clothed, both Lucas and Claus, a large screaming Claus with no pupils or irises (and again later as a red outline), and a horrifying, distorting red face bearing resemblance to Giygas, possessing white eyes, a nose (and again without a nose), and a gaping mouth.

Abilities[]

The unused enemy abilities vary between battle background. Of note is a PSI ability that was likely scrapped during the development of Mother 3, which is simply called "PK ?" (blank line). Its nature is similar to PSI Flash, as it targets all of the boss' opponents and causes adverse effects including poison and nausea. There are certain forms of the boss which have no abilities (such as Straw) and are thus unable to inflict damage on the party members. Various other forms of the battle background possess different levels of this unused PK attack; Snow Bunny, for instance, uses only PK Ω (Hypnosis Ω), which puts all party members to sleep. Dung Beetle uses PK β, which poisons all party members. Tent Person uses PK γ, which causes paralysis to all party members.

  • In addition, at least one of the forms (Clayman) possesses a non-PSI ability with the text "The Barrier Pose made the dissipate!", which causes all party members to cry.
  • Vapor uses an ability with no text whatsoever that creates feelings of strangeness in everyone. It could be Brainshock Ω.
  • Rope Snake's ability is the same as Vapor's, but it causes nausea instead of strangeness. It only uses physical attacks if you use Brainshock on it twice to make it feel strange.
  • Aeolia's Table has yet another identical ability, but this one causes fleas.
  • Mini Elevator uses the Fish Roe Kick, an attack usually unique to Fish Roe Man.

Stats[]

Many of the unused enemies earlier (as listed above) forms share the same stat sets, while later forms have much weaker stats.

  • Train and Sign (the last one on the list) are unique in that they have no stats: their offense and defense are both zero and they can both be killed in a single blow. They also grant no experience.
  • Dung Beetle, Tent Person, Snow Bunny, Clayman, Vapor, Rope Snake, and Aeolia's Table all share the same stat set; it's a reasonable stat set that you would expect from a boss. They are considered the stronger forms.
  • Straw shares the hit points of the tougher boss forms, but the lower defense and offense of the weaker ones. It also has the curious trait of giving 6666 experience points when defeated.
    • However, if you defeat the boss with any level of PK Love, it grants you an extra 330 experience points, giving you a total of 6996 experience.
  • Mini Elevator and Vapor 2 have much lower hit point totals and other stats than most of the forms. They are considered the weaker forms.

Slightly more detailed information on the stats can be found on the List of unused and glitch enemies in Mother 3 page.

Drops[]

  • When defeated, the Dung Beetle form of the boss sometimes drops a Silver Dragonfly.

Trivia[]

  • The "Mini Elevator" and "Vapor 2" forms bear a large resemblance to "Giygas" in the sense of the latter's first phase, implying he would return in some form as fans believed. However this is completely false as in 8 of the Nintendo Dream interview of Shigesato Itoi, he states it was always planned to be just brother vs. brother, and the options they considered were betraying the player, keeping the battle and ending vague and having no dialogue, and other options that Itoi describes as "ones that would make you really wonder about the main characters when looking in from the outside". Addition to that, it's very impossible for Giygas to return in Mother 3 due to the fact he was fatally wounded by human emotions from the event of Earthbound which probably damaged his time-traveling technique.
  • The first form of "Sign" and the form of "Train" both use an effect that makes Claus (or Lucas, depending on the form) appear to be making different faces. This was most likely intended to make the unused boss seem more vivacious.
  • Oddly, not all forms of the unused battle background give the "boss victory" tune at the end of the fight, giving the "normal victory" tune instead (Vapor 2 is an example).
  • It is unknown that the "Dung Beetle" background could be an alternative form of Masked Man due to both being related to Claus and both being somewhat robotic.
    Straw

    Straw's EXP Points.

  • The D3 version of Claus' unused form oddly yields 6666 experience points. However, when hit with any level of Lucas' PK Love, it is killed instantly, regardless of HP at the time, and yields 6996 experience points, shown here. Also, the background disappears when it is killed, only to show back up when pressing the A button again.
  • It is also possible that the unused battle backgrounds has relation to the original version of Mother 3 because "the scenario in the N64 version was much, much darker".[1]
  • Also, there may be a connection between the red "X" on the Dung Beetle form and the red "X" background used in the Vapor form, but this hasn't been proven.
  • One theory states the battle backgrounds are used for changing Claus from his robot form to human form, but this also hasn't been proven.
  • Tent Person's battle sound is 2, Aeolia's Table's battle sound is 13, Mini Elevator's battle sound is 15, Straw's battle sound is 23, Vapor 2's is 24, Snow Bunny's battle sound is 41, Dung Beetle's battle sound is 50 and Vapor's battle sound is 51, some of these require further hacking in order to get them to use an attack that uses a battle sound.
  • Strangely, when the Clayman form attacks, the text says "The Barrier Pose made the dissipate!" This move is similar to a message that appears while fighting The Barrier Trio. There appears to be an extra space between "the" and "dissipate".
  • When the Vapor 2 form "attacks" the game will say it's explosive device was destroyed, regardless if the party attacked or not or how many times its explosive device has supposedly fallen off.
  • It is possible that the unused backgrounds are for two separate bosses, explaining the drastic change in background style. But of course, this is not confirmed.

Gallery[]

External links[]

References[]

  1. http://mother3.fobby.net/interview/m3int_07.html Page 7 of a translated interview with Shigesato Itoi, held by Nintendo Dream magazine
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