Zero Punctuation: EarthBound - Not Your Typical JRPG

[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.

 

[Evil Smurf]

What platforms is this on?

I wonder how many people are going to know what a Tuckshop is. Very regional of you.

You mean, it's not just an Australian thing?

 

[Dalisclock]

I assure you I'm not new. *points at join date*

Also, that must be why he didn't review Tabula Rasa, or Age of Conan, or Eve, or Cataclysm, or DCUO, or SWTOR, or ESO... oh wait.

My mistake.

I still don't get the feeling he likes doing those games, so he takes great pleasure at tearing them a new one.

 

[Dansen]

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.

I get where you are coming from but I see no need to put other forms of story telling down. It has its merits, just as all forms of art do. No need for a huge budget to produce moving performances or amazing action scenes and you can get a tighter focus on the characters. As good as the Game of Thrones show might be it will never be as good as the books because half the fun of the story is getting to see the events filtered through the characters' perspectives. Hell, you don't even need to perceive the comment as an insult either, I certainly know I would like to see some tighter focus in game stories.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Another game in my backlog that I stopped mid way. I remember getting to what looked like neon sign town. Twas a little creepy, as if the kids found themselves in a red light district of a major city.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Yahtzee just reviewed Earthbound. Pardon me a moment while I resize my eyes back down to proper proportions. Though, speaking as a guy with a frakin' Starman emblem tattoo, be wary--here there be grind. Moreso in Mother 1, and only in select places in Mother 3 (until you get the defense up/power down Ω, wherein the rest of the game except two bosses become completely manageable with normal progression). Skip the first one, unless you really like Earthbound, because it's the same game while telling a prequel story. It's also hard as balls without the easy patch, and the first enemy in the game can kill you outright if you don't react right. That enemy? The psychically possessed lamp on your bed table.

But, if you liked Earthbound, then download the fan translation of Mother 3 and follow those instructions to play it, because it's exactly the strong sequel that this series needed. It's definitely worth it. Moments like Tanetane island are what makes gaming something unique among all media.

A ZP retro review on EARTHBOUND?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQBiaOQk__A

I don't have a like function here, but I just want you to know that I just liked this so hard I broke my clicking button.

Yahtzee reviews my favorite RPG of all time.

Am I in fucking heaven?

Possibly just the nicer, gentrified side of hell, but at least you're in great company.

So what exactly is interesting about this game then? For such a cult thing, it doesn't seem to have anything in it apart from being slightly quirky - but which JRPG isn't.

It's not just that it's quirky. It pokes fun at itself while still having a zany sense of humor, but in kind of unexpected ways. For example: there's a town with a ghost and zombie infestation. After some chaos and getting a new party member, you develop a plan to get rid of the zombies--with zombie flypaper. Want more? Okay. You encounter an isolated tribe of people at the back end of a dark swamp, all suffering crippling shyness. The solution? Go back to the library at the beginning of the game and check out the self-help section for the book "Overcoming Shyness", and have them read the book so that you can enlist their aid in progressing to the next power site. There's some stuff in between, and the story isn't afraid to take turns into the macabre, Lovecraftian, or reflexively philosophical (like the section where you pass out and go on a vision quest inside your own imagination, something that got its own game in Psychonauts), but it all works together in a beautifully chaotic way.

 

[gyrobot_v1legacy]

I assure you I'm not new. *points at join date*

Also, that must be why he didn't review Tabula Rasa, or Age of Conan, or Eve, or Cataclysm, or DCUO, or SWTOR, or ESO... oh wait.

My mistake.

I still don't get the feeling he likes doing those games, so he takes great pleasure at tearing them a new one.

Which confirms yahtzee is either an introvert or actually antisocial.

 

[Flunk]

Hey, it's not my fault. I bought a copy of Earthbound! After renting it first of course. Earthbound is one of the most offbeat games ever made and it was critically panned for it. Our loss, I guess we're going going to get more glitzy FF style shiny-pants JRPGs.

Anyway, I've been thinking of replaying it for ages. Maybe I will and post the whole thing to YouTube and call it a "Let's Play". That's what everyone seems to be doing now. I still have the original cartridge.

 

[FPLOON]

To be honest, the closest I remember of Earthbound is from the "unfinished" soundtrack "parody" from Duane and Brando...

Spoiler

I really should give this game another go, now that I think about it...

 

[shogunblade]

This is the surprise that awaits me when I get home from a long, boring day at work? Yahtzee doing a review of Earthbound?

FUCK YES! Excellent review, Yahtzee! An Electric Light Orchestra reference in the Elder Scrolls Online review and a retro-review of Earthbound? This must be my lucky year.

A fantastic game, and it happens to be the one game I would have bought a Wii-U for if I didn't own the game on the SNES in all its wonderful glory.

This review made my day, except I'm going to go visit my mother and eat some cockFajitas, and then fight bad guys with my PSI Gaming ability. This was exceptionally awesome, I loved it.

 

[Kanjidude]

What a coincidence - I just played through Mother 1 (or rather the translated NES version "Earthbound Zero") for the first time a couple of days ago!

I really liked the game; I've always been a fantasy guy, but I found the "current day" setting mixed with all sorts of weird and wacky stuff extremely interesting, entertaining and surprising. In standard fantasy or sci-fi you pretty much know what's coming - dragons, elves, dwarfs, magic, but in Mother/Earthbound you can never really be sure; Hippies, monsters, aliens, ghosts, rock singers, robots, a penguin, young love... In a way that's way more "fantasy" than any traditional fantasy game.

Maybe that's the true meaning of fantasy anyway.

 

[Urh]

Earthbound has been on my "to play" list for a long time, and this review has finally spurred me on to actually play it. It wasn't long before I struck comedic paydirt, when my character's mother told me to "eat some COCK and scoot up to bed."

I hope that choosing PUSSY as my favourite thing has an equally satisfying payoff.

 

[Kerethos]

I'd just like to thank Mr. Croshaw for reminding me I had not had my fill of rum for the day. Daily schedule: complete!