Also known to the weeaboo legions as "Mother 1" (as opposed to Mother "0" on the Famicom), Earthbound is an insane work of genius, or just a work of insane genius.
The slightly more suspicious of the player base (ALSO KNOWN AS EMULATOR PIRATES) would have suspected something was amiss when they woke up in a decidedly modern room, stepped into their decidedly modern hallway, past their decidedly modern sister's decidedly modern room (with a decidedly modern gift box containing a decidedly modern cookie), down their decidedly modern stairway, and into their decidedly modern first floor.
Well, alright. I shall concede: contemporary fantasy is nothing new. However, things take a turn for the worse when talking to the police reveals that "Onett police are world-famous for blocking roads if there's a problem!"
Your spidey-sense should be tingling, of course. However, if you were inebriated while playing this game (and I strongly advise against not doing this), your spidey-sense might be a bit faint. Continuing along the fairly linear path, past the swarms of stray dogs and very classy crows, you'd come across the ever-lovable Liar X. Agerate, telling you to work out and eat garlic. OK. Further than that, and you come to a meteorite. Some stuff happens, and then a fly tells you that you are the destined hero.
Yes, a fly tells you that you are the destined her--actually, let's stop there. The entire plot essentially goes to hell from there, having you...
No, stopping right there.
For the sane among us, Earthbound is a role-playing game, modelled strongly after Dragon Quest (Or was it called Dragon Warriors in Amerikaland?). The game was Japan's way of pointing and laughing at the crazy, weird Americans (much like how Americans point and laugh at the crazy, weird Japanese).
That said, the game is not merely Dragon Quest on acid. Of interest are the unbelievably punishing battles, equipped with a Health-o-meter that ticks down when you get your ass handed to you, forcing you to make light-speed decisions to get to your healer's spells to prevent the Health-o-meter's ticking down to zero and your consequent PAINFUL HIDEOUS DEATH at the hands of, say, a puddle of animated vomit, or a balloon animal.
Interesting also, to get you into the mood, are the incredibly trippy backgrounds. Potentially to save the dwindling remainder of the game's $200 budget, relevant backgrounds are not drawn, being instead replaced with swirling patterns of awesome and insanity. Outside of battles, graphics are truly terrible (again, likely due to the $200 budget), with little to hint at the SNES's copious colour collection. Although, to be fair, the environments are well-drawn, just not well-coloured.
The soundtrack is the standard delicious SPC fare, with everyone's favourite BEEP and KRTSCH stealing the spotlight, as it were. Music is always fitting, and able to capture the full gamut of human emotion, including the powerful sense of "WTF?!" inspired by the battles. In fact, WTF?! is captured with the greatest skill and attention, almost to the degree that the game seems not to particularly care about other, mortal sensations, such as "joy" and "anxiety" and "crippling depression".
All-in-all, if you can get past the fact that Earthbound essentially pulls your pants down and laughs at your culture in front of absolutely everyone, and punishes you with boss battles that are still completely random affairs after spending an hour scouring their area for every piece of monstrously potent gear, Earthbound is a brilliantly quirky game.
Buy it? Rent it? Don't touch it?
Well, screw that, emulate it.
The slightly more suspicious of the player base (ALSO KNOWN AS EMULATOR PIRATES) would have suspected something was amiss when they woke up in a decidedly modern room, stepped into their decidedly modern hallway, past their decidedly modern sister's decidedly modern room (with a decidedly modern gift box containing a decidedly modern cookie), down their decidedly modern stairway, and into their decidedly modern first floor.
Well, alright. I shall concede: contemporary fantasy is nothing new. However, things take a turn for the worse when talking to the police reveals that "Onett police are world-famous for blocking roads if there's a problem!"
Your spidey-sense should be tingling, of course. However, if you were inebriated while playing this game (and I strongly advise against not doing this), your spidey-sense might be a bit faint. Continuing along the fairly linear path, past the swarms of stray dogs and very classy crows, you'd come across the ever-lovable Liar X. Agerate, telling you to work out and eat garlic. OK. Further than that, and you come to a meteorite. Some stuff happens, and then a fly tells you that you are the destined hero.
Yes, a fly tells you that you are the destined her--actually, let's stop there. The entire plot essentially goes to hell from there, having you...
No, stopping right there.
For the sane among us, Earthbound is a role-playing game, modelled strongly after Dragon Quest (Or was it called Dragon Warriors in Amerikaland?). The game was Japan's way of pointing and laughing at the crazy, weird Americans (much like how Americans point and laugh at the crazy, weird Japanese).
That said, the game is not merely Dragon Quest on acid. Of interest are the unbelievably punishing battles, equipped with a Health-o-meter that ticks down when you get your ass handed to you, forcing you to make light-speed decisions to get to your healer's spells to prevent the Health-o-meter's ticking down to zero and your consequent PAINFUL HIDEOUS DEATH at the hands of, say, a puddle of animated vomit, or a balloon animal.
Interesting also, to get you into the mood, are the incredibly trippy backgrounds. Potentially to save the dwindling remainder of the game's $200 budget, relevant backgrounds are not drawn, being instead replaced with swirling patterns of awesome and insanity. Outside of battles, graphics are truly terrible (again, likely due to the $200 budget), with little to hint at the SNES's copious colour collection. Although, to be fair, the environments are well-drawn, just not well-coloured.
The soundtrack is the standard delicious SPC fare, with everyone's favourite BEEP and KRTSCH stealing the spotlight, as it were. Music is always fitting, and able to capture the full gamut of human emotion, including the powerful sense of "WTF?!" inspired by the battles. In fact, WTF?! is captured with the greatest skill and attention, almost to the degree that the game seems not to particularly care about other, mortal sensations, such as "joy" and "anxiety" and "crippling depression".
All-in-all, if you can get past the fact that Earthbound essentially pulls your pants down and laughs at your culture in front of absolutely everyone, and punishes you with boss battles that are still completely random affairs after spending an hour scouring their area for every piece of monstrously potent gear, Earthbound is a brilliantly quirky game.
Buy it? Rent it? Don't touch it?
Well, screw that, emulate it.
