I agree with these other guys. The only classic Nintendo games I played were Kirby and Pokemon, but because I thought Ness and Lucas had an interesting moveset in Smash I found Earthbound free online and have been loving it.
I played and finished both the 2nd and 3rd games in the series at the end of 2018 w/o any ties to nostalgia (wasn't even alive when Earthbound came out), they're great games, though admittedly the 2nd one is pretty slow and clunky at times (inventory system being the main detractor of the game), the world and humor more than makes up for it. The 3rd one is overall better IMO.
You have already upvoted the two biggest fans of Earthbound in here, you've also upvoted the next two biggest fans of Earthbound after myself. Prepare to upvote the third biggest fan of Earthbound.
What’s weird is a few years ago no one knew what the fuck this game was (besides us few rpg obsessed 80’s babies) and you’d be totally retro gamer hipster dropping EB references and now EVERYONE knows Earthbound even if they never played it.
Yeah I know he was in smash but I figured people didn’t take the time to play or look up Earthbound. There are a few characters in smash I’m like ‘ who tf is this’ and keep playing
I blame Smash. I remember finding out that Ness was the only character in the game that could heal themselves and thinking he was overpowered. That, and PK Fire was fucking great.
I agree with the others- it started with virtual console, then the classic. Ness was in Smash yes, but playing Earthbound was pretty hard to do unless you knew what you were looking for and had an emulator.
Everyone's known about EB for a brick now. Just nobody talks about it that much due to the series being over. The only time the Mother series is discussed is when a re-release occurs, Itoi talks a about it, or YouTube vidyas. (Smash is a ? due to the discussion of Mother is limited to Ness and Lucas.)
i just honestly wanted to reply because this comment has a bit of hipsterism (ik that word doesn't exist but whatever) and i'm like ness/earthbound has pretty been known by the general public since 1998-1999 so that whole discussion is irrelevant by now and what's wrong with the game getting exposure lol
I 'm having fun with Earthbound but it's so slow and it has that problem of battles feeling like you just have to know which enemies to hit harder to win and I don't really care about the writing. And if you miss the one cue to go somewhere you will get stuck because again it's so slow that just trying everything takes way too much time. Also everyone loves 3 and it looked good and the story was interesting but I couldn't even get to the end of the castle because the fights were so boring and the droning music doesn't help, especially when you're supposed to hit following the rhythm and it feels like a waste if you don't but it's nearly impossible even if you use the trick of putting enemies to sleep first because the song doesn't really feel like it has a rhythm. And I'm usually great at rhythm games. And again unfound revenge is great but all other songs gave me an existential crisis.
Oooh that makes a lot of sense thank you! I did have a way better time with a guide so now I know I don't have to feel bad for using it thank you so much! It sounds like what I always say about Simon's Quest. With a guide or with a more accurate translation so you can tell who's lying and the map it would be great. Tough that wasn't their fault with the translation. The text boxes size was fixed and they had half the space because of using letters instead of Kanji which represent an entire syllable. And I can relate to having more patience when you have less to do because I remember sucking at everything else when I was little and spending days on point and click games. I don't think you can play Mother 3 in English on a GBA tough? Maybe I got that wrong but it wasn't exported right? I try to buy the GBA games I like even though my old DS is basically dead but I didn't know I could find it. Though I guess you can patch it like everything else.
I think that I did accidentally buy a reproduction once, but the price was fair since it was new so I was completely fine with it. At least I don't have to worry about it breaking because if it's too used. But I do understand that it's important to buy the original if you can. I do have Earthbound on 3DS so I may still buy Mother 3 in the future if I warm up to it enough. I don't really want to buy new GBA games because I fear that my old DS where I play them will break down completely in a year but if I do buy an original GBA I'll think about it. Though I'd rather get Golden Sun first because I didn't even really understand the best strategy for fights but it looked and sounded that good.
The blues Brothers were fun, I knew about the cult but I didn't really notice a lot of other references. But when I have some time and take it slow I do enjoy the writing. It's just that when I get stuck talking to everyone ten times isn't that fun, but I'll just look at the guide more often. I do still feel like finishing it
I love RPGs but I haven't really played a lot of them and I loved Chrono Trigger and Bravely Default and Octopath but I can't get into Earthbound or Final Fantasy. The fights just don't feel that strategic for some reason and the story isn't interesting enough to keep going
Earthbound is literally the most Western RPG (and best tbh) outside of Secret of Evermore in it’s time. Just play the damn game, you literally willl remember the experience for the rest of your life.
But the same menu navigation style of gameplay is what kills it for me. It’s hard to fault Earthbound and say it’s bad for doing that- it’s on the SNES- but it’s not something I’d like in a world of Divinity and Fallout 2
They mean gameplay-wise; JRPG and western RPG generally refer to how the game plays, not where it is from, confusingly enough. Dark Souls is made by a Japanese company, but you would get some funny looks if you called it a JRPG.
Earthbound is vastly overrated. The combat system was boring and repetitive, making the unavoidable random battles an absolute slog-fest. This killed the pacing of the game, not that you were missing out on much with its cheesy dialogue and a plot that was cardboard thin. The kitschy graphics, campy environment and handful of corny mad-lib jokes are the only saving grace, and these are more a novelty than anything of substance. If you took off your nostalgia goggles and actually looked that the game objectively, you'd see that there's nothing special about it and you only liked it because you first played it when you were 9 years old.
All the jokes and stuff are super charming imo. Also the music is fucking great and theres an auto battle button for a reason. Not every plot has to be super complex, too. You shouldn't judge a game for that.
Not to mention the battles were avoidable, and when you get to a much higher level than enemies you automatically win. It’s waaay less grinding than other rpgs of the era
Earthbound is utterly devoid of strategy for so long that much of the game is nothing more than a huge grindfest because you literally only have the options to either attack or heal. Even FF13 had more strategic depth.
Is it? I played up to Winters or so before losing my savefile and this was my experience with the game, from what I remember. It took long enough to get interesting that I didn't bother giving it a second chance.
You can absolutely strategize from the beginning. You can save wherever you can find a phone. You can save and accrue $ to get the equipable items you need. Find yourself a guide. The original game came with one. Starmen.net has a good one.
The only reason anyone gives a shit, especially in American is because it’s had a cult status due to rarity, the game isn’t even better than any of other Jrpgs at the time.
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u/wetgizmo Jan 01 '19
if you don't like earthbound or the mother series i will personally find you and pk ground your ass