Mt. Itoi (ホーリーローリーマウンテン, Holy Loly Mountain in Mother) is the final and longest area in EarthBound Beginnings. It is also acknowledged to be the most infamously difficult area in the entire game to beat, both by the critics and the developers themselves, making it stand out as one of the hardest parts in the entire Mother Trilogy.
The eastern Swamp, Ellay, and Mt. Itoi base has the same enemies.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Mt. Itoi is one of the most important places in the game for many reasons. It is where Ninten and Ana confess their feelings to one another as lovers. EVE, the robot created by George, is introduced here as well. The seventh melody can be heard from EVE's remains after battling R7038XX after EVE self-destructs herself to defeat it. The Sea Pendant can be obtained from a cave past Mt. Itoi’s lake near here, which protects the character wearing it against all PSI attacks (other than PK Beam). The LastStarman can also be found here near the summit as the final enemy and is also the enemy who drops the most amount of XP (in groups). The last melody, George's Gravestone, is at the summit. Maria’s whereabouts are then revealed to the player after they collect all eight melodies. Finally, the final boss, Giegue, is fought in his mothership, and the game wraps up upon his defeat.
Mt. Itoi is first introduced when the player visits Ellay, although it is first subtly foreshadowed all the way in Merrysville's Twinkle Elementary School on the rooftop in the background. A few NPCs and a sign mention it as well, one mentioning its black clouds looming across the sky. Halfway through the path, a small house can be seen. This is the second last landmark in the game and Ninten and co. can choose to heal here and get free LifeUpCreams, effectively making this the best location to stock up on healing items in the world of Mother as well as superseding all other less potent healing items in the party’s inventory.
Mt. Itoi features the final landmark (The black square) in the map, leading to the underground cave where the BlueStarman and Cerebrum guard it. It is difficult to traverse through the maze-like structure without a guidebook. The player can then choose to grind XP here and grab Hank's Bat for Ninten, as well as the Katana (If Teddy is with them) and Ana’s IronSkillet to maximize damage output. The most optional route forces Ninten to traverse at least 5 rooms. At the start, go directly north instead of east. Then, at the second room where it forks off into 4 paths, go northwest. From here, Ninten should be in the third room next to another door. Don't go through the adjacent door. Instead, go down to the far left exit. If done correctly, the fourth room should be a straight line that slightly zigzags. Where it forks, go east to get the Hank's Bat or north to the final room, which is a simple path out. Once the player finds the exit to the maze, Ninten and co. can finally begin to properly climb Mt. Itoi.
The plateau is the beginning of Mt. Itoi’s infamously sharp difficulty curve. It is filled with extremely dangerous enemies such as the Gargoyles who can instantly stone any member. The Titanians requirement some sort of Offense Up or Defense Down for Ninten to break through their high defenses. Megaborgs can use PK Beam. If the player manages to get past the plateau, they will find the final safe zone in the game. The healer will instantly revive and fully heal all members free of charge. This is also where the last telephone is located and thus is the only place where you can save in Mt. Itoi. Entering the room on the left for the first time will cause Ana to confess her love to Ninten. Once they finish dancing together, Teddy will come in and tell them of a mysterious sound encroaching upon them. An unwinnable battle will initiate against R7038 and Ninten’s party will lose, only to reveal Lloyd’s return in a tank, who defeats the boss and saves everybody, bringing them back to the safe zone near the initial path to underground Mt. Itoi.
After the attack, Teddy is shown injured and in bed. Teddy exclaims that they cannot be defeated by brute force and acknowledges Ninten and his friends as the only saving graces against Giegue’s forces. Lloyd then returns the favor by joining back with Ninten. Teddy cannot be recruited again nor will the equipment he equipped be given back to Lloyd. The items in his inventory, however, will be given back to Lloyd, and this marks his final role in the story before the epilogue scene.
Ninten and co. make their way back up Mt. Itoi, they eventually reach the lake portion, where they come across a boat. Lloyd is needed to repair the boat. This also means that you cannot complete the game without bringing back Lloyd from the party (but if you bring Lloyd along first and repair the boat, then go back to get Teddy, then Teddy can stay with Ninten as long as you don’t trigger the cutscene.). This is because the Seventh Melody is obtained by EVE, who joins the party after it is revealed that she is George’s creation who serves to protect Ninten. She will eliminate any enemy instantly, making her the strongest party member in the game. This is the best and only time to grind for XP with EVE as she will eventually be stopped at some point close to the summit by R7038XX. They exchange potent blows, but EVE eventually loses the battle. In her final moments, EVE sacrifices herself and self-destructs with the boss, defeating it for the sake of Ninten’s survival. Interacting with her destroyed body will give the Seventh Melody and in the Mother 1 + 2 version of the game the Memory Chip to Ninten.
When Ninten and his friends finally reach the summit of the mountain, the tombstone of George will be waiting for them. When interacted with, George will congratulate Ninten for coming this far. He tells him that his grandmother Maria was the one who spread all 8 melodies around America. He then gives the final melody to Ninten, completing the song. Ninten then must travel back to Magicant and go to Queen Mary's Castle to sing her all the 8 melodies. After the song ends, Mary is revealed to actually be Maria and tells Ninten of Giegue’s past as their adopted child. She then rejoins with George as Magicant disappears, revealed to be her world of imagination. After Magicant disappears, the Onyx Hook loses its ability to warp and Ninten and his friends are teleported right in front of George’s tombstone.
The rock blocking the small cavern is now gone and Ninten can finally enter to fight Giegue. In one room of this cavern, Ninten, Ana, and Lloyd discover a room where numerous people are encased in alien pods. One person recognizes Ana from her hat and explains that her mother is being held in a room in the back. They say that nobody can be freed unless Giegue is defeated. With this in mind, Ninten, Ana, and Lloyd continue through the cavern, leading to the summit. Here, Giegue faces the group in his mothership protected by a liquid preservation pod, and explains his gratefulness to Ninten's family, as Ninten's great-grandmother, Maria, raised Giegue when he was an infant. However, Maria's husband, George, illicitly studied his races' advancements and fled to Earth, where his research was deemed threatening to them all. As a result, Giegue was tasked with stopping alien technology and abnormal abilities from spreading among the Earthlings. However, Ninten, a descendant of George, now poses a threat to Giegue and his plans of keeping humanity ignorant of PSI.
Giegue tries to convince Ninten to board the mothership and survive as he attacks the party who all try their best to defend themselves. However, Maria's spirit explains that Giegue is immune to all force, and can only be defeated by the Eight Melodies. As such, Ninten, Lloyd, and Ana sing the nostalgic song to Giegue eleven times, being silenced by Giegue's attacks ten times before finally getting the full lullaby through, defeating Giegue with his greatest weakness. Swearing revenge, Giegue flies back to the cosmos along with his army. The story ends as all the captured adults reunite with their children in Youngtown. Ana reunites with her mother and Teddy is shown to be back in the Live House singing daily. Lloyd is celebrated by his classmates as a national hero. Ninten and Ana are shown writing letters to each other and promising to meet again. The final scene features Ninten sleeping back in his bed where the game first took place, wrapping up the story.
Ninten’s sleeping is accompanied by a slideshow of most of the characters in the game popping back up for the last time. Credits roll, and the post-credits scene features a mysterious man calling someone. It is implied to be Ninten’s dad calling Ninten about Giegue’s return. However, it has never been confirmed that Ninten and Giegue could meet again, nor have plans of revisiting the plot of EarthBound Beginnings been addressed. EarthBound, the sequel to EarthBound Beginnings, takes place in a similar but different world, but the in-universe connections between the 2 games are oddly distant. EarthBound Beginnings's ending is thus left to the player’s imagination.
Trivia
- If you have four characters in your party (by using cheats) and attempt to get EVE, she would disappear, making the game unbeatable. Interesting to note that you cannot teleport or use the Onyx Hook because the game believes EVE is still with you.
- Once you acquire all 8 melodies you can leave Mt. Itoi freely without having to backtrack for any last minute preparations because Maria will teleport you to George’s Gravestone once you sing to her, skipping the entirety of the mountain.
- Mt. Itoi is an obvious reference to the game's creator/director, Shigesato Itoi. This name is only in the English localization likely as a way of paying respects to the lead game developer. The original Japanese name is “Holy Loly Mountain”, having no subtle connection to Itoi whatsoever.
- Although The Cave of the Past is presumed to be EarthBound’s equivalent of Mt. Itoi, the Deep Darkness shares a sped-up remixed version of the song, although the terrain is completely different.
- The underground portion of Mt. Itoi’s song is explicitly similar to EarthBound’s “Save the Miners!”.
- What is presumably Mt. Itoi can be seen from the roof of Twinkle Elementary School, towering above the rest of the background mountains. Mt. Itoi cannot be seen in the Lookout Tower in Ellay due to it facing the ocean.
- Itoi has also stated in interviews that since the deadline of finishing the game was closing in, the development team was unable to fine-tune the no barred holds difficulty of the area. This became the game’s greatest gripe with many players who were forced to either run away from every battle or grind long amounts of time to level up.
- In the Famicom version, there is no eighth melody in Mt. Itoi. Once the player gets seven melodies, they are subsequently warped to Queen Mary's Castle and Mary is the one who sings the eighth melody. This also means that George’s Tombstone does not talk to Ninten back. Immediately after entering the entrance, the player watches the mothership cutscene and fights Giegue with no capsule room prior. The game also ends abruptly right after Giegue’s defeat, leaving the player with no comforting epilogue.
- Interestingly, the house that Ninten and co. can stay in prior to entering the underground portion of Mt. Itoi has the exact same model as Ninten’s house. This was likely due to rushed development and presumably lacks any plot significance, however. The house that’s just before the Mt. Itoi lake, however, is completely unique in its brown-striped walls.
- Going into the dance room with a party of Ninten/Pippi/Teddy or Ninten/Teddy (cheats) will activate the scene as normal, but Ana will not block the door. This means you have lost Teddy and Lloyd for the rest of the game.
- It is possible to solo-fight Giegue. This can be done when you have a party of Ninten/Ana/Teddy. To do so, you must go to the dance room of the Healer's house. DO NOT TALK TO ANA. Use Teleport, Onyx Hook, Bread Crumbs, etc. with Ninten only.
- WARNING: Make sure before you dump your party, that you come to Mt. Itoi with Lloyd to get the 7th Melody from EVE, then go back to get Teddy.
- It is said in game that Teddy lost his parents at Mt. Itoi, which is where he first got his cynical personality from. This is also the reason why he joined Ninten’s party and replaced Lloyd, only to fail to R-7038. However, his mental health seems to recover in the epilogue after Ninten fulfills Teddy’s wish by defeating Giegue as he now sings in the Live House.
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