EarthBound (1994)

Preliminary: Welp here I am, back here. I am playing an uncensored localized/translated version of the Japanese original this time. And not streaming it heh, which helps with focus and exploration. I wasn't sure how to do this with my old review since it, well, isn't that old, but I'll just do my usual.

Early Game

The sound is already just absolutely mesmerizing and absurd as I am typing in my character names. Starts with a cozy town twilight time... All the things I love. I just hope the frustrations of the gameplay don't get to me as much, not being on stream this time.

In some ways it's modern and high QoL: faster movement than most its contemporaries, diagonal movement, etc. In others, it's rudimentary: some menu/equipment/inventory management headaches, and most of all, no single button to check/open. (Oh wait, always read your manual: the L button does that lol) Still, no reason to have an unused Y button.

I like how it introduces the mechanics, savings, and storage with the sister at the beginning. I also am glad I am using a guide and have the manual this playthrough, without the rpessures of entertaining/streaming so I can actually pay attention, because I didn't notice certain things/items/using King at the beginning/etc.

Tacky that it tries to trick you in to repeating long dialog.

Right when I was kinda burning out and thinkinjg maybe I just leave it at the 4 star and recognize it for its uniqueness but that I don't love the plot and combat system as much as I would like, and then a great tune for the Frank boss lol.

I can't deny I am having the RPG hook tho! I can't believe it got so late tonight! That being said, I am just not really that into it. It has an amazing Look, Sound, and Feel, but I get irritated with the game. And this replay isn't really helping that. I will continue it tomorrow and see if it's atually worth a full palythrough... I'm already dreading the final boss again haha

With the rpg hook, completely absurd sound and enemy jokes etc, and standing out so strongly for it's time, I feel like it deserves a 5 star. But in reality, actually playing it, yes there's the rpg hook, but like with ff6, it just isn't the fun level I expect from a 5 star And it seems Mother really hit me more , even if the Look isn't as amazing, and it set many precedents that are my favorite parts of Earthbound

Yep, onslaughted with status ailments and frustrating random battles, and I think it's time to move on. I think the only change I would make to the ratings below is that Look and Sound are 9.5/10 because truly, they are as close to perfect 10 stars as possible. The colors and coziness of the Look are peak SNES. And the absurd and unique and sometimes outright catchy and fun tunes are peak video games. But the Play drags down the Feel and Attachment/replayability.

Old Review:

Preliminary: One of those games I’ve always heard about but never played, never even watched playthroughs of. Because I was streaming it, I think it affected the way I engaged with the game a bit, so I will have to give it another try when I get to it in the chronology project. To see my playthrough of this, click here. At the time of writing this review, the last 2 videos aren't uploaded yet.

Look: 9/10 Love the RPG Maker sprite vibe yet its own unique Look to it. Lovvvve the Look of the Town Map so much! Yes, Tomba and Pokemon esque but entirely its own beautiful thing. The Look was a big part of what I enjoyed about this game

Sound 9/10: The music is so good! Parts of it were super odd, others eerie, others quirky, and many many sentimental beautiful ones which is what’s most important to me. And those basslines! I loved the altered/effected oldies music in Fourside Cafe. Also the song in the shops reminds me of Tomba (which I was reminded of a lot in this game).

Play: 7/10 A bit slower than I expected–not in the combat system, but goofing around is good but sometimes they just did it to elongate dialogue or mock the usual slow RPG conversations or to mess with the player. Which is ironic and fun and all but sometimes bogged down the game. I love that the items are Hamburger, Bag of Fries, etc., although sometimes it wasn’t clear which would heal better than others. At first I was skeptical but grew to love the way enemies run from you after a certain level/part in the game and you seem to still get the exp? Neat. I also liked that through that, you could get them trapped, which was especially needed in endgame. However, the quick spawns, quick movement, and paths you had to take often resulted in that not being as useful as I had hoped. Speaking of useful, unique features, I didn’t use Auto Fight as much as I expected since RNG and types of attacks based on the enemy are so critical, but Auto Fight was a neat idea and super helpful when training on Foppies. Those were amazing training by the way! Take time with them in that sewer and again, um, where was it? Some cave. I think the lost underworld cave. If you see the little red balls, it’s a good place to train.

It felt forgiving with the heals of Mom and the Butterflies, tho not so forgiving in terms of difficulty spikes between areas. And indeed, the Play/combat is what started to bog down the game as I got into mid and late game. There were just such intensely RNG-based attacks. I felt like I went from barely surviving random encounters, to either an insanely hard or ridiculously easy boss fight, and then suddenly was borderline OP for the end of the game (borderline OP because RNG could stil turn what is normally a simple, easy fight into all of my party dead type fight) after I grinded for the Sword of Kings.

Throughout the game I was frustrated with inventory management. I know that’s a part of RPGs but sheesh. Escargo Express helped a lot, but I couldn’t access it, say, in the Lost Underworld. And the fact you weren’t allowed to throw away or send away certain items was hypothetically nice for absolutely necessary key items, but instead was just frustrating at end game.

Overall, the Play is the usual RPG style that I like and get hooked to, full of unique features and good ideas. However, I was more frustrated with the game than I expected. I want to give it another try offstream and re-assess but for now this was the weakest element of the game.

Feel: 8/10 I thought of Tomba when, near the beginning of the game, I went behind trees to the tree house. Tomba came up throughout the game, even with the Mr. Saturns and just the idea of villages in these odd places like the Tendite Villages. Oh, and the moles reminded me of the Tomba Underground Maze–well indeed, it seems Tomba was generally inspired by this. So much of this reminded me of Tomba, even just the characters the Exit Mice the hair on some of the people you talk with the way there are healers, so much. I love the customizability, the cute names, and love love love the selection of the Look of the menus. Such good colors! And the graphics are so perfect!!! I loved that Abstract Art was an enemy lol, and there were lots of humorous enemies. Great humor throughout indeed. Good Look, Sound, a lifelong curiosity about the game, and an absurd concept made for a powerful Feel. Oh, I will also mention that the Story did not add as much as I had expected. I liked the ideas of nostalgia and home and whatnot, but the actual plot was not very engaging after the initial Buzz Buzz part. Again, maybe when I replay it I will connect more with that, and I did like where the game ends.

Attachment: 8/10 Over time, the overly brutally RNG-based enemy attacks really got tiring. I like that it is a challenging RPG and everything, but it got a bit tedious feeling at times. Bogging down the otherwise very unique and fun and lively Sound, Look, and Feel. Still, the Attachment is there, with the lifelong curiosity about the game, the classic RPG adventure that I will always be drawn to, and my desire to give it another shot offstream without the pressure of viewers and having to take time to look up what items do etc.

Overall: 8.2/10

Completion: Main Story

Glad I finally got to play this gem. I never owned a Super Nintendo (I went from a NES to a n64). It has a unique twist to the standard fantasy formula by setting the story in modern times. Your weapons are baseball bats and frying pans (there are laser guns too to be fair). While this wasn't the best looking game on the SNES, it made up for any lack of technical spit shine with style and humor. The game is quaint and charming with it's tone and enduring characters. Each companion in the game gets a brief and unique intro to set them up as a character. While the gameplay stays standard throughout (there are a few "puzzle" fights), the game throws a ton of variety at you in terms of themes in each new area and enemy variety. Everything felt unique and typically had some sort of unique facet. Such as Moon town requiring warping and replying with "no" for "yes."

Combat is your typical turn based combat with a slight twist around damage you receive. After you take a hit, your HP will ticks down rapidly. This allows you the opportunity to heal yourself or finish the fight which adds a little bit of stress to combat. A few nice quality of life features is an auto combat option (the AI is pretty bad, so unless it's a trivial fight it usually isn't worth doing this) and if an enemy is significantly weaker than you, not only will it flee from you, but you will often automatically defeat it (not going into combat mode).

While combat graphics are fairly basic (you don't have any attack animations and you can't see your own player character at all) they make up for it with fantastic and varied music across the board and psychedelic visuals. The music in particular is pretty impressive. You have lively colorful upbeat tunes contrasted with techno-surreal and unnerving beats and plenty of in-between.

The game has it's flaws. The difficulty curve can feel a bit sporadic at times. The inventory system is extremely limiting and tedious to deal with. Once more, there are plenty of one use items that you can't drop or get rid of after said use. Your only option is to deposit it into the clunky banking system. As annoying as the inventory is, it did not bring the experience as a whole down. In addition, later stages end up being significantly harder (not a bad thing) due to sporadic hospitals (used to revive dead allies) which can make dying and continuing extremely tedious as you are forced to back track far. While I like the introduction of each new character, they don't do anything meaningful with them after the introduction (I guess Paula gets abducted, but it's fairly shallow and doesn't develop her as a character, rather it acts as a plot device). It's a shame to have these strong character moments and have them fall into the background due to no further development. The only character who has an arc is Pokey. While I'm all for developing villains, he still comes off as comically evil and 2D. Finally, multiple puzzles have fairly obtuse and stringent solutions. You will have to do actions in very specific orders which isn't always intuitive. Again, the overall journey more than made up for these flaws.

The final boss is completely insane and kind of tonally inconsistent with the rest of the game. I still think it works but it does feel off.

Last tangent, I played Omori before I played Earthbound. Omori wears its influence on it's sleeves which is mostly not a bad thing. Though I do think Omori liked the final boss of Earthbound a bit too much and decided to rehash it multiple times throughout the game (the different confrontations with phobias, the darker tone whiplash, ect.). While the final boss in Earthbound is cool for it's puzzle mechanic, the same rehashed bosses in Omori end up getting boring because they all use the same conceit that Gygas uses and never does anything interesting or subversive with it. Also the music in Omori is clearly inspired by Earthbound's. While I can appreciate the things Omori tried to do, Earthbound did it better.

One of the best JRPGs ever made and if you are a fan of the genre and still haven't checked this out, you owe yourself.

I wasn't fully expecting to be as impressed this time around. I remember beating it when I was a child when it was released, and I was sure that a lot of the nostalgia was influencing my experience, and that the game's touch was lost (or muted) after nearly thirty years. But honestly, I was surprised at how touched I was, and how much fun I had, and how charming the whole thing was.

In fact, it was that breath of fresh air that I've been experiencing as I play some of these older games I may (or may not) have beaten: the games end at a normal rate, they don't require me to worry about trophies or quests that I can't remove in a log so that a bonus truly feels like a bonus, and the gameplay is addictive and simple. No DLC, no microtransactions, no endless options. Most of all, they have heart, which is something that Earthbound managed to have more of than most other games of its generation.

It's perhaps not a perfect game (though none, of course, is). It had some weird RNG stuff happening - the same fight that took forever and I lost the first time was finished by happy accident within minutes the second time around; I was surprised at how little dialogue the main team share; the pacing seemed a little off. But this is nitpicking at its finest. The game is damn good.

If you're remotely interested in JRPGs, this is a requirement. In fact, unless you actively hate this genre, play this game. It's aged beautifully.

I was very excited to finally get a chance to play Earthbound when it get added to Nintendo Switch Online. However, I gave up after playing 15 hours or so. I see the charm and why people may love Earthbound but I just can’t enjoy playing it. If you feel the same I recommend watching AVGN’s video about Earthbound.

I was literally mindblowed by the story yet to come but at the same time I am glad that I didn’t continue playing because I know I won’t enjoy spending another 20 hours into this game.

It's 2018 and I've finally completed EarthBound.

People have recommended this game to me since its (long overdue) Wii U Virtual Console re-release back in 2013. My first playthrough attempt was two years later, though I jumped ship once Mondo Mole killed my party (I did not feel like re-navigating his dumb maze and mini-bosses).

In the intervening years, I've played and enjoyed several games that count EarthBound as an influence... Undertale, Contact, Costume Quest, Pokémon, the ending of Tearaway. So when I had a cross-country flight coming up, I decided to download the game for my New Nintendo 3DS (along with a few walkthroughs and the official Player's Guide cached on my phone so I wouldn't get stuck again).

EarthBound is very lovable. Its USA-circa-"199X" setting and plucky, Peanuts-esque protagonists are easy to relate to. Its sense of humor feels quirky and sincere. The bizarre events that unfold (and odd dialog used to describe them) leaves plenty of room for interpretation, a quality that feels increasingly intentional as the fourth wall crumbles. And the sound design is some of the best of the 16-bit era, with tons of variety and character and emotion. Even though I was playing on a handheld device, I almost always reached for a pair of headphones or a quiet room so I could enjoy the audio!

But EarthBound is also a product of its time. Enemies vary wildly (and randomly) in strength. Sometimes an enemy will kill a party member in one stroke, sometimes they'll fall quite easily. I learned to save my game state frequently, as often simply reloading and entering the next area again was enough to have an easier time.

This game requires patience. Did I say patience? I meant grinding. Lots of grinding. Even the well-documented techniques for artificially increasing one's stats require lots and lots of grinding. You will battle the same enemies again, and again, and again, and again, whether it be for experience, for some rare item drop, or simply while traveling.

EarthBound was innovative for making enemies react to your newfound strength, running away from you or instantly dying if the conclusion is foregone. But just as often the game introduces obstacles that are repetitive and frustrating. Toward the end you frequently encounter a class of enemy that replenishes all of its HP almost every turn, is not very weak against your stronger PSI attacks, and inflicts inescapable damage upon defeat. It is tough to understand how a designer could find this sort of enemy fun.

The game also suffers from some of the same questionable "logic" of early point-and-click adventure games. This sort of inscrutability is certainly part of the game's charm, but it makes for a somewhat unapproachable experience for newcomers who don't have the game's happy path memorized (or the boundless time necessary to uncover every secret organically).

So while I think EarthBound is a great game, an important game, a lovable game... I could not imagine playing it without consulting a walkthrough, or liberal use of save states. I'm really glad I played it, I found the experience moving, but I probably won't play it again.

I'm super curious to play Mother 3, though. I'd love to experience how the series evolved.

1001 Games - #260

Pros: incredibly unique JRPG with memorable characters and story, rolling HP counter prevents cheap deaths, excellent soundtrack, auto-winning battles against weaker enemies

Cons: very limited battle animations, occasional sudden difficulty spike, generally slow pace of play

Recommendation: there's a reason Earthbound has the fervorous cult following that it does. Not only is it a blast to play, it's also one of the most unique gaming experiences I've ever had, all while generally following the established JRPG formula. What are you waiting for? Go play Earthbound.