The Eight Melodies are several melodic fragments found in EarthBound Beginnings and EarthBound. When combined, these fragments create tunes that serve as important plot devices in each game. In EarthBound, the Eight Melodies transport Ness to his own Magicant, where he confronts his nightmare and awakens great inner strength.
EarthBound[]
In EarthBound, the songs are inherited through Ness's childhood memories and recorded to the Sound Stone, at "Your Sanctuary" locations. To truly understand himself and enter his mind, Ness must record all eight of these melodies to the Sound stone to gain access to "Your World", Magicant. Unlike the original eight melodies, this composition is in G major. It was inspired by Mother's Eight Melodies, although it is not used to defeat Giygas, it will give Ness a stat boost.
Mother 3[]
The Eight Melodies do not appear in Mother 3. However, a tune similar to Eight Melodies can be heard. Instead it is called 16 Melodies, which is a combination of Mother's Eight Melodies, EarthBound's Eight Melodies and Mother 3's Love Theme. In the song, Eight Melodies plays from 0:48 to 1:16, Smiles and Tears plays from 1:20 to 1:50, and the Mother 3 Love Theme plays from 1:29 to 4:00.
Lyrics[]
- For the lyrics, see Smiles and Tears.
Trivia[]
- In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, the Magicant stage's music is split in half, with the first half being the Magicant theme from EarthBound Beginnings and the second half for the Eight Melodies.
- A remix of the Eight Melodies from MOTHER can be heard after collecting a melody from one of the "Your Sanctuary" Locations, making it one of the few songs to appear in every game in the series.
- Despite sharing the same name in-game, the Eight Melodies from Mother and EarthBound are actually different tunes altogether. The Mother Eight Melodies appears in EarthBound as part of the track entitled "A Flash of Memory," though it is heavily truncated and is subjected to delay effects.
- A difference between the two Eight Melodies is that the Eight Melodies from Mother, as mentioned above, act as a vulnerability of the main antagonist, while the Eight Melodies from EarthBound serve to transport Ness to Magicant, where he overcomes his nightmare.
- The original Mother version of the song plays in the Japanese commercial, promoting the game's slogan, "No crying until the end(ing)" (エンディングまで泣くんじゃない, Endingu made nakun janai). It has been heavily associated with the Mother franchise since then.
- In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the two final parts of the melodies from Earthbound Beginnings are Ness and Lucas' new victory themes.
- In 2011, the composer of the song, Keiichi Suzuki, reseased an album with many rare tracks, demos and live tracks of his work, including an demo of the EarthBound Begginings' Eight Melodies.[1]