America (アメリカ) is the setting of EarthBound Beginnings. Like Eagleland, it is based on the real-life United States. America consists of Podunk, Merrysville, Union Station, Reindeer, Spookane, Snowman, Yucca Desert, Youngtown, the Swamp, Ellay, and Mt. Itoi.
In the world map included in the instruction booklet for Mother 1 + 2, the region the game takes place in is instead called The World of Mother (ザ ワールド オブ マザー), although the in-game text referring to America wasn't altered. This is presumably to match The World of Mother 2 where Ness and his friends don't stay in America but travel through entire continents. Additionally, according to Encyclopedia Mother, the body of water to the north is a fictional version of the Pacific Ocean.
In the original Famicom release of Mother, every significant town was named after a holiday. In later releases, these were changed (with the exception of Reindeer and Snowman) in an attempt to appeal more to English audiences. Phil Sandhop, the game's Localization Producer and English Script Writer, stated that "[Shigesato] Itoi originally wrote them to sound friendly. I don't believe that towns named after holidays was friendly. Matter of fact I thought it sounded stupid and thought older players would really be turned off. I wanted it to be enjoyable for all ages." Thus, the names were changed upon the release of EarthBound Beginnings and were instead named after real-life American towns.
Map[]
Many of the elements of Mother's in-game map can be seen here and the map itself is surprisingly accurate. The City Zoo is northwest and Ninten's House is slightly south of it, with the Canary Village just to the left of it. Going south will lead to Podunk, then further south to the Cemetery. East is Merrysville and both factories north and south of it respectively. Interesting to note that mountain cliffs seem to block them off. The Union Station is open (No rock-slide present) and its train tracks go to Reindeer, Spookane, and Snowman. Ana's Church does not seem to be depicted in the image despite it being a vital point to visit in the story. The Yucca Desert has small hilltops of sand which are not present in the game. The airplane can be seen flying (Based on size of perspective), but there are no ruins to the right. Youngtown feels more empty and rural as there are not as many houses to be seen. There are also no bridges in the Swamp despite bridges being drawn in many other places meticulously. Ellay seems to be mostly accurate with it including the Lookout Tower and the dock. Finally, Mt. Itoi, the final location, is in the middle of the map. This can be surprising to many players who assume it would be to the east of Ellay, since that is where you enter the underground cave. However, the cave simply leads back to the base of the mountain at the middle. The dark clouds described in Mt. Itoi are also on the map. The mountain can also be seen in Twinkle Elementary School as Merrysville is relatively close to Mt. Itoi. The fact that the mountain is in the middle of the entire game’s region also means that the Train Tunnel runs through it, which is why strong enemies spawn when trying to traverse through the tunnel by foot.
