Gaming Chronicles - Earthbound... Finally.

It only took several years of having various emulators, and one of my favorite LP channels doing a play through of its sequel, but I've finally gotten to play Mr. Itoi's magnum opus, Earthbound.

Apparently, this RPG doesn't push the envelope for what RPGs could do. However, having grown up with limited RPG experience (Paper Mario 2, then Final Fantasy in college) that point doesn't mean much to me. Similar to my interest in Final Fantasy, I was playing Earthbound mainly for the music and story. And the dialogue wasn't that bad either!

So instead of reviewing the game, or writing a typical "Gaming Chronicles" about my progress in it (I'm almost to the final "dungeon.") I'll just share some weird/funny bits I found while playing!

One of the best parts of the game are the many zany enemies you'll encounter. For instance, upon arriving in the sunny city of Summers, you might be assaulted by a Mad Taxi! Even previously stationary objects, like lamps or even street-signs:

Not their "real" names - these guys are Ness, Paula and Jeff.

Giygas' power isn't just limited to just stray animals or random people, apparently!

I also appreciated the self-awareness present in the game. That is, the game will acknowledge that it is a game, and play it up for either humor or plot purposes. That trick can get a bit annoying, if it is used too much. There does come a point where there's too much "Hey hey, this is a game," but Earthbound keeps its fourth-wall-breaking to a tasteful level. For example, this sign outside of a building in the city of Fourside:

Soooo meta.

 I don't know if this is a bit of humor from the developers or the translators, but a sequel to Earthbound eventually came to be. (Unfortunately, this game, known as Mother 3 in Japan, was never  *officially* translated to English.) Also, Earthbound did multi-layer dreams decades before Inception:

*cue loud fog-horn sound*

The dream-within-a-dream situation reminds me of the general trippy-ness (pun intended) of the game. All the battles feature undulating, colorful backgrounds. The picture above (with the attacking Crazed Sign) does not accurately illustrate this point. Some enemies, like Sanctuary bosses, feature their own unique battle screens. Eventually, I'll have to face the nightmare-inducing battle screen of Giygas. But not for a while!

I sure don't!

Earthbound has been an entirely enjoyable experience. I did have to grind once or twice, but various circumstances in-game made it enjoyable, like PSI Teleport and the lack of random encounters. In a genre where most main characters wield swords and wear chain armor, Earthbound is a different take on the conventions of said genre. Ness is just a kid (who happens to have a terrible, terrible neighbor - more on that in Mother 3!) who is thrown into his adventure by a meteor and the arrival of his terrible neighbor, the total Jerk with a capital J, Porky.

It's an experience I would recommend to anyone with an SNES or Wii U. I'm not sure that I can endorse emulators, but I'll just say that Google will lead you to some solid ones which can be made to support joysticks.

Anyway! It was pretty easy to write about Earthbound, as it is a very good game. Its predecessor, Earthbound Zero, or simply Mother, is a different story entirely. And an article for another day!

See you later, for now.


[Disclaimer: I'm never good at these, but here goes: piracy is bad, games are good. Emulators are fun, as some games are too rare/over-priced for me to get the actual cartridge. But, if you have a Wii U and want to try a fun game, please consider buying Earthbound. That's all!]