This is probably my biggest inspiration of all. After playing these games at the same time as this pilot lingering in my head at the time, I began to evaluate what in particular about these games grabbed me.
Mother 2 (or Earthbound as you will know it as) is, on the surface, a parody of JRPGs with a very childlike art style and tone of voice, but is primarily a coming of age story, where the protagonist, Ness (a representation of the creator of the game as a child), by the end of a long and bizarre journey, experiences true terror and by remembering the his friends and family, counters the fear and ends up being a bigger man. The background music is similar to Adventure Time's in terms of how experimental, wacky, and tone-presenting it is. It has more of a nostalgic feel to it, opposed to Adventure Time, though, and I think is a stronger influence in that sense.
Mother 3 has the same kind of tone as Earthbound. A very vibrant and child-like art style, some random and wacky humour; the difference is that instead of getting scary out of nowhere, it has little snippets of very dark and sad moments throughout the story. On top of that, it deals with themes of family death and childhood trauma, a very daring move considering this is somewhat more of a kid's game than anything. Just like Earthbound (and to a larger extent Adventure Time) the transition between humourous to serious is both smooth and strong. The music in this one is not nearly as experimental as Earthbound's but it does have a strong nostalgia factor, the Love theme in particular being a powerful contender for most emotional theme in gaming. This is actually why the demo music for the main theme of my pilot is so sentimental, because it's more of a taste of the tone I wish to take on with my series, despite how the pilot looks on a surface level.
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