Zero Punctuation: EarthBound - Not Your Typical JRPG

[Halbert]

Saying "the game hasn't aged well" doesn't do it justice, because even though the battle system itself was already old and simple when it came out, it's the ambience the whole reason to play the game, and its still unique in its own way. Sure, it has a few references here and there, but most of it is self contained humor.

Everyone sees something different in the game. I wholeheartedly recommend you think about playing it. It's a unique experience.

I don't see this get mentioned frequently, but this right here is the point of half of Earthbound's humor. It's basically a send-up of the "traditional JRPG:" NPCs who wonder why you're rooting through garbage cans for food, tutorials where the NPC forgets to stick with the game's terminology, convenient-but-useless plot items, events that specifically call out JRPG tropes (to the point of breaking the fourth wall.) The silliness of the tropes in those games looks downright wacky when translated to real world analogs, such as the psychic desert monkeys who teach you teleportation or fighting anthropomorphic street signs.

I'd say this doesn't get appreciated too much because the original audience for the game likely played it as starry-eyed youth who couldn't see the satire but still enjoyed the game on its own merits. Years later, the nature of the satire is well-tread soil, as well as being a slow boil (per Yhatzee,) so I'm betting the new players aren't seeing past the nostalgic elements and gameplay.

 

[shrekfan246]

No, I'm not.

I'm making the educated guess that, based off of 95% of the other reviews of multiplayer-centric titles Yahtzee has ever covered, his opinion is going to align very similarly with what he said of every other MMO he's criticized. Therefore, you could get the same end by rewatching any of those videos.

And again, I can make the exact same educated guess about 95% of JRPGs he has played. Yes, it is the same. But just as Earthbound was the exception here, maybe a sci-fi MMO where he isn't a space quantity surveyor (a la Eve) will be the 5% there too.

Or maybe it won't. But it would still be entertaining regardless.

I'll apologize if I don't share your view of being interested in the utterly expected. He's found more JRPGs which he has enjoyed than MMOs, so him covering a JRPG can be a pleasant surprise. Him covering an MMO generally treads the same ground he already covered in whatever the last MMO video was.

Because he was so in love with Guild Wars 2, right? He's got a laundry list of issues with MMOs and the way they do things which extends far beyond the basic combat (just look at his review for The Witcher); and from everything I've heard, Wildstar hasn't made a big splash within even the community of people who do like MMOs. Hell, I didn't even know it had finally launched, and I'm around this website and follow many Youtube gaming personalities almost every day. Considering the hype it had leading up to its release, it should've had a more resounding impact.

As much as you claim to be around though, did you miss that it advertised on the Escapist when it launched? Indeed, around Yahtzee's own videos?

If you missed it because you're blocking commercials on the site, I'd like to refer you to Jim's great video on the subject. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/8854-The-Adblock-Episode]

I don't pay much attention to ads when I can help it, except to mash the buttons which mute, skip, or close them.

Yes, the summer drought has struck once again. I still wouldn't expect Yahtzee to look at yet another MMO any time soon, and I wouldn't get my hopes up for it to be positive if he did.

I don't expect any of his reviews to be positive - he's a Caustic Critic [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CausticCritic] after all. But he is fair about pointing out the things they do that work.

On the occasion that he actually spends enough time to even experience it in the first place.

Perhaps if he did another gimmick review, I'd be less cynical about the thought. But just from pure supposition, I would think that no matter how different it may in fact have become Wildstar would get little more than a "Like World of Warcraft but..." stamp from him, so I'm not terribly enamored by the idea of him checking it out.

I'll grant that there is always the chance to be surprised, however.

 

[Stratigo]

I know the *grumble grumble* "no games released in summer, have to do old retro games" *grumble* stuff is schtick, but I would relly like to see review of games that are coming out. Like Divinity. Or easing off the schtick because it gives the impression that nothing comes out, and that isn't true. Triple A nonsense is not all of gaming, there is a good crop of mid tier (in funding) games out on the market now, that isn't steam greenlight deluge of searching through the shit for the diamonds, but games from actual established dev teams that aren't bajillion dollar flash and action blockbuster releases.

 

[Mahoshonen]

Seeing as how Yahtzee is running out of old game he likes for his retro-reviews, maybe next year we'll get old games he didn't like.

 

[themilo504]

Earthbound and it's sequel Mother 3 are the closest games will ever get to literature.

Can we please all stop putting literature on such a high pedestal, the only reason why so many good stories are books is because literature has been around for a very long time.

There?s nothing about literature that makes them any better than movies comic books video games or any other storytelling method, i actually think that its inferior to other storytelling methods.

 

[PMAvers]

Let's not forget the other thing that Mom does in the game: Cures Ness' homesickness (a status ailment) by calling her.

 

[Darth_Payn]

Yahtzee, you tease! That "Mother" bit towards the end sounded like the perfect place to toss in lyrics from that one Pink Floyd song from "The Wall"! You also didn't point out the fucked-up-ness of how you and your little pals kill the final boss:

Spoiler

You kill him before he's born, so he's a giant fetus. You essentially perform an abortion. And this game looked so family friendly!

 

[themilo504]

02.37 I dislike doing that and not because I have no soul, but because I know that it?s going to stop being funny a lot quicker than the game is going to end.

I don?t know or this opinion is heretical, but I like mother 3 more than earthbound, and this is after I?ve started to become more critical of the stupid anti technology Aesop of mother 3.

That?s not to say I dislike earthbound, I think it?s a fantastic game that any gamer should at least try out, I just prefer the world and darker tone of mother 3.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Funny.

Now review Conkers Bad Fur Day!

 

[PrimePowerOn]

Yahtzee reviews my favorite RPG of all time.

Am I in fucking heaven?

I do believe I said the exact same thing. And after the giddiness wore off, I was glad someone else (with like, credentials and stuff) liked it. There must be more of us out there.

Oddly, I am in the middle of playing this myself. Not so much to get over the Summer drought, but to ignore the backlog of 100 games I have unplayed on Steam including XCOM, Bioshock, Spec Ops: The Line, Deus Ex, Bastion (half played, friend deleted save) etc....

 

[Shameless]

Even though this is an awesome game, it has the easiest last boss ever ! All you do is pray to defeat Giygas.

 

[Abyss]

This is an awesome review. I think he describes the game very well, and I liked how he is drawn to the kids playing heroes meets cosmic horror aspect to it.

I found it interesting that he described the plot as school children fighting God, because he borrows a bit of that archetype for his Metroidvania game Poacher. After avoiding certain actions that would force you to face your crimes in the Abyss, you get a secret boss fight with the narrator of the game, who turns out to be the deity who rules the Abyss: the Judge of All the Earth. He's like a pure negative manifestation of God, combined with traits of Hades, Satan, and Yahtzee himself. What's most interesting about the noss fight is that it has a retro-arcade theme song that steadily becomes a hard rock song, just like the last boss fight with Giygas in Earthbound. And after you shoot the Judge's eyes, he chases you blind, and looks rather like Giygas' true form. Even a You Tube player commented that the Judge was "Giygas scary." That's one of the reason I wish Yahtzee re-released Poacher with commentary, just to know all the inspirations, because there's definitely an Earthbound homage in the Judge battle.

If Yahtzee wants to play the other games in the Mother series, then tell him about the Mother 1+2 and Mother 3 translation patches he can use with the ROMs and the Virtual Boy. I think he might really be compelled by Mother 3, considering that it shares some cosmic sensibilities with his work. The Adventures in the Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment and Trilby's Notes come to mind.

Now that I think of it, Yahtzee should totally do a Mother/Earthbound veined-game in Game Maker. I think he would come up a concept that is appropriately Mother-ish.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Yes, I knew he liked Earthbound! Was wondering with this would happen.

I want to play it again now, just to kill Hippies.

 

[Kitsune Hunter]

Good retro review, been awhile since you done one, although despite the drought, there's got to be something that came out not too long ago to review.

*cough*Kirby Triple Deluxe*cough* Oh sorry, random cough.

 

[RaikuFA]

One reason this didn't sell well that I remember was it had a pricetag north of $100 in the only store that carried it, and was locked away at the top shelf above the normal shelving unit with peripherals like the superscope6 and mario paint and those really dumb controllers bigger than an arcade stick that no one seriously wanted and they didn't have a ladder to pull it out unless it was the night crew, and if it was the night in the mid 90's and you were in the electronics store buying games, it was something stupid and gorey like Eternal Champions.

And that kids, is why American Kirby looks hardcore.

Also hard to find. I tried getting it as my b day was at the end of the month it was released, couldn't find it even with relatives help.

 

[FireAza]

I'd just like to mention another feature that goes with genius feature of auto-ending battles when you fight enemies when you're way more powerful than they are: they run like hell when you approach them. You actually have to corner weaker enemies in order to fight them.

Something I wish Yahtzee had mentioned is how funny the writing is. Even in the battles, you'll have things like cowardly party members using you as a shield or apologizing profusely to the enemy.

 

[Sheen Lantern]

Seeing as yahtzee has nothing new to play, how about a ZP on The Wolf Among Us now that ep 5 has been released?

After the last Telltale game ended up being one of his favourites of the year, I was honestly expecting this.

 

[Enlong]

Earthbound and it's sequel Mother 3 are the closest games will ever get to literature.

I'm pretty sure stuff like Zork is closer to literature. Much more text.

 

[major_chaos]

Yahtzee review Divinity Original Sin next? That's a lenghty and good RPG to tide you through July.

He made a passing comment at the beginning of this weeks Extra Punctuation that he found it boring and had nothing to say about it, so I highly doubt that's going to happen.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Still not sold on it. Although the dark undertones do make it sound kinda intriguing.