I've long believed there was a strong link between the two, especially at the beginning of the Pokémon franchise, but I'm not so familiar with the behind the scenes stuff that I feel I have the full picture. It might be fun to discuss though. Maybe someone more knowledgeable about this than me can provide more info in this thread.
On the development end, the obvious link is APE Inc. As I understand it, when Shigesato Itoi contacted Shigeru Miyamoto to get a video game developed, they set up a new company - APE Inc. - to handle the development. After the second game was finished, Tsunekazu Ishikawa took most of APE's employees and formed Creatures Inc., which which went to work on Pokémon and owns one third of the copyright.
Perhaps coincidentally, Hip Tanaka worked on both of APE's Mother games when he was at Nintendo, then went on to do some work with Pokémon. When he found that he was not able to work with the series any more while remaining employed at Nintendo, he instead jumped ship to Creatures, and is now president there.
The contents of the games seem to be related too. The first two Mother games are noted for their contemporary setting. Pokémon isn't exactly there, but it's close. Poké Marts seem close to drug stores, Pokémon Centers to clinics. The cities in both are pretty grounded. They both have a bit of a retro futuristic vibe, but EarthBound largely restrains it to aliens and the friendly weirdo geniuses that stand up to them, whereas in Pokémon the technology is widespread, so it becomes more of a near future setting.
The existence of psychic powers in both settings is interesting. In EarthBound it's more prominent, being the equivalent of magic in the series. It's just another type in Pokémon, but it's one of the weirder ones, not being a standard RPG element or tied to nature. The psychic type felt special in the first Pokémon games, probably not entirely by intention, due to the type not having any obvious counters, Pokémon of the type being rare, and Sabrina's gym being difficult.
Just for completeness' sake, there are also ghosts and dragons in the first two Mother games, which I think covers the other weird types. But they're nowhere near as prominent as the psychic powers.
Oh, and Clefairy's an alien. EarthBound is pretty big on aliens.
A few of the specific characters in Pokémon seem to heavily invoke EarthBound as well. For starters, you've got Red and Ness. They're everyday preteen boys who set out on an adventure. They're from sleepy suburbs. They're largely silent protagonists. They wear red hats and backpacks. They both have absent fathers. Admittedly none of these are totally unique features, but that's a good chunk of both characters that line up.
Then you have Blue and Pokey / Porky. They're next door neighbours as well as rivals to the hero. They appear periodically, always one step ahead of you. They're also assholes who mock you ever chance they get. They have unexpected roles in the final boss battle - or final storyline battle in Pokémon's case. They even both have friendly siblings with little story involvement. It's not a total translation from one game to the other - Blue obviously looks totally different, he's more actively involved in fighting you, he's not evil, and there's no implication that he's motivated by anything more complex than sheer dickery. But their roles and the surface layers of their personalities are extremely close.
Mewtwo and Giegue / Gigyas / Giig are a pretty good match, although it's specifically a match with the Mother 1 / EarthBound Beginnings version of the character, and it's more surface level. They're both thin, tall catlike creatures with unmatched psychic powers who serve as a final boss. They also both have some subtle resemblance to a fetus. In Giegue's case, it's the bubble contraption you see him in. Mew is sometimes seen is a bubble, but for Mewtwo, it's more visible in his tail. Notice how his tail seems to start at his abdomen. Their stories aren't really all that similar though. If I wanted to really stretch the connection, I'd point at them both having a mother of some sort and being related to humans playing with something they shouldn't, but I can't seriously claim either of those connections.
It's also interesting that in Gold and Silver, Mewtwo seems to have left behind the Berserk Gene, which makes a Pokémon stronger at the cost of confusing them. I can't help but think of how in EarthBound, the animal and human enemies you fight throughout the game have been incited to violence by Gigyas' immense psychic power.
I suppose Dr. Andonuts from EarthBound and Professor Oak from Pokémon could be connection, since they're both helpful scientists who give you gadgets and are related to another important character, but I'm just bringing it up for the sake of looking for connections. It's probably a huge reach. I'm pretty sure this type of character was already common when these games came out, like Dr. Light from Mega Man or Dr. Saotome from Getter Robo. Professor Oak forgetting his grandson's name does kinda match up with Andonuts telling his son "let's get together again in another ten years" though.
A somewhat minor detail, but the Mother series and the Pokémon series use kana in Japanese (I think X+Y introduced an option for the kanji option). For Itoi, this was an intentional choice, as it encourages the player to read the text out loud to parse what's being said. He played a Dragon Quest game which lacked the tech to display kanji and like the effect. For Pokémon, it might be because younger players would learn kana first.
okay I may be bullshitting you with this last one.
I don't really have discussion questions in mind, so, uh. What say you, Era? Do you have more info that I don't? Have you thought about this connection too? Am I just full of shit? Would it count as slavery if you catch a Mr. Saturn in a Poké Ball?
On the development end, the obvious link is APE Inc. As I understand it, when Shigesato Itoi contacted Shigeru Miyamoto to get a video game developed, they set up a new company - APE Inc. - to handle the development. After the second game was finished, Tsunekazu Ishikawa took most of APE's employees and formed Creatures Inc., which which went to work on Pokémon and owns one third of the copyright.
Perhaps coincidentally, Hip Tanaka worked on both of APE's Mother games when he was at Nintendo, then went on to do some work with Pokémon. When he found that he was not able to work with the series any more while remaining employed at Nintendo, he instead jumped ship to Creatures, and is now president there.
The contents of the games seem to be related too. The first two Mother games are noted for their contemporary setting. Pokémon isn't exactly there, but it's close. Poké Marts seem close to drug stores, Pokémon Centers to clinics. The cities in both are pretty grounded. They both have a bit of a retro futuristic vibe, but EarthBound largely restrains it to aliens and the friendly weirdo geniuses that stand up to them, whereas in Pokémon the technology is widespread, so it becomes more of a near future setting.
The existence of psychic powers in both settings is interesting. In EarthBound it's more prominent, being the equivalent of magic in the series. It's just another type in Pokémon, but it's one of the weirder ones, not being a standard RPG element or tied to nature. The psychic type felt special in the first Pokémon games, probably not entirely by intention, due to the type not having any obvious counters, Pokémon of the type being rare, and Sabrina's gym being difficult.
Just for completeness' sake, there are also ghosts and dragons in the first two Mother games, which I think covers the other weird types. But they're nowhere near as prominent as the psychic powers.
Oh, and Clefairy's an alien. EarthBound is pretty big on aliens.
A few of the specific characters in Pokémon seem to heavily invoke EarthBound as well. For starters, you've got Red and Ness. They're everyday preteen boys who set out on an adventure. They're from sleepy suburbs. They're largely silent protagonists. They wear red hats and backpacks. They both have absent fathers. Admittedly none of these are totally unique features, but that's a good chunk of both characters that line up.
Then you have Blue and Pokey / Porky. They're next door neighbours as well as rivals to the hero. They appear periodically, always one step ahead of you. They're also assholes who mock you ever chance they get. They have unexpected roles in the final boss battle - or final storyline battle in Pokémon's case. They even both have friendly siblings with little story involvement. It's not a total translation from one game to the other - Blue obviously looks totally different, he's more actively involved in fighting you, he's not evil, and there's no implication that he's motivated by anything more complex than sheer dickery. But their roles and the surface layers of their personalities are extremely close.
Mewtwo and Giegue / Gigyas / Giig are a pretty good match, although it's specifically a match with the Mother 1 / EarthBound Beginnings version of the character, and it's more surface level. They're both thin, tall catlike creatures with unmatched psychic powers who serve as a final boss. They also both have some subtle resemblance to a fetus. In Giegue's case, it's the bubble contraption you see him in. Mew is sometimes seen is a bubble, but for Mewtwo, it's more visible in his tail. Notice how his tail seems to start at his abdomen. Their stories aren't really all that similar though. If I wanted to really stretch the connection, I'd point at them both having a mother of some sort and being related to humans playing with something they shouldn't, but I can't seriously claim either of those connections.
It's also interesting that in Gold and Silver, Mewtwo seems to have left behind the Berserk Gene, which makes a Pokémon stronger at the cost of confusing them. I can't help but think of how in EarthBound, the animal and human enemies you fight throughout the game have been incited to violence by Gigyas' immense psychic power.
I suppose Dr. Andonuts from EarthBound and Professor Oak from Pokémon could be connection, since they're both helpful scientists who give you gadgets and are related to another important character, but I'm just bringing it up for the sake of looking for connections. It's probably a huge reach. I'm pretty sure this type of character was already common when these games came out, like Dr. Light from Mega Man or Dr. Saotome from Getter Robo. Professor Oak forgetting his grandson's name does kinda match up with Andonuts telling his son "let's get together again in another ten years" though.
A somewhat minor detail, but the Mother series and the Pokémon series use kana in Japanese (I think X+Y introduced an option for the kanji option). For Itoi, this was an intentional choice, as it encourages the player to read the text out loud to parse what's being said. He played a Dragon Quest game which lacked the tech to display kanji and like the effect. For Pokémon, it might be because younger players would learn kana first.
okay I may be bullshitting you with this last one.
I don't really have discussion questions in mind, so, uh. What say you, Era? Do you have more info that I don't? Have you thought about this connection too? Am I just full of shit? Would it count as slavery if you catch a Mr. Saturn in a Poké Ball?
