Oh, I've been meaning to mention... yesterday, I beat EarthBound! I now feel confident with my newfound ability to comfortably read blog posts and message board conversations concerning said title, as well as engage in said conversations with a spoiler-proof mindset. And I don't have to pretend to understand some of BP comic's anymore! (well, among other things) I've still yet to play Mother 1 or 3, though.
My only major problem with the game was... well, it's not really with the game, per se, but I guess I just underestimated how weird it would be. I mean, I knew it would be bizarre, but there were a lot of plot points I thought would be explained eventually that just turned out to be non-sequiters or deliberately vague (the Apple of Enlightenment, the Starmen's connection to Giygas and the latter's origin, and various statements characters make in-game that suggest you will eventually travel into the future come to mind). Then again, was any of that stuff just connected to the original Mother and left intact in English-translated Mother 2/Earthbound? I might've just missed something...