"Epic, Addictive, Immersive, Compelling, Engrossing, Brilliant, Hilarious"

There was once a time when the term “RPG” meant a video game where players take on the role of a spiky haired anime hero and fought Dragons, Dark Wizards and Giant Skeletons in an epic quest across a medieval fantasy land using an assortment of equipment and magic spells. Well, maybe not that extreme, but that would certainly be the response from an average gamer when asked what an RPG was back then.

But of course, the real definition of a Role Playing Game is basically a game where players have several different stats and fight enemies in turn based battles with damage calculation based on these stats. But even then few games dared to venture from a Fantasy Medieval setting. This time is now known as the Pre-EarthBound era.

Shigesato Itoi was the first video game developer to realise this. The genius and creator of EarthBound decided that not all RPG's should be like this, not all RPG's should be set in a Fantasy Medieval land. He decided to be different, and do something different. So he started developing Mother for the Famicom Disk System, which never saw a release outside of Japan, and pretty much failed anyway.

Then the Super Famicom came along, offering dazzling 16-bit visuals and a MIDI sound system. With this new technology, RPGs came to a new level. But the sad thing is, they began concentrating more on having twisting, turning storylines and amazing visuals and less on the most important thing in any Video Game: Gameplay.

Itoi decided to give developing another “different” RPG a shot. Mother 2 was released in Japan in 1994 for the Super Famicom, and apart from being criticized for its dated graphics and modern theme, it sold like Hotcakes with sauce. A US release on the SNES, titled EarthBound, was planned immediately.

Sadly, EarthBound was released in the shadow of SquareSoft's incredibly overrated Chrono Trigger, which boasted some of the best Graphics to grace the system and an engrossing storyline. They couldn't boast about the Gameplay, though. EarthBound, on the other hand, was shunned by the gaming community. Everyone took one look at the simple visuals and didn't care. But those that took the time to play it were rewarded with incredible gameplay.

Although it wasn't the best selling game of all time, EarthBound had a small but accomplished fanbase formed around it. EarthBound is admired and remembered because it did something different. It took everything in RPGs, gave it the proverbial middle finger and became something fresh, new and original. EarthBound is a masterpiece of epic proportions.

Chrono Trigger offered an adolescent spiky haired anime hero; EarthBound has a young boy with a baseball cap and stripy top. Chrono Trigger is set in fantasy; EarthBound is set in modern times with cities and towns. Chrono Trigger has magic spells. EarthBound has psychic powers. Chrono Trigger has an orchestral musical score; EarthBound has an upbeat funky techno score. Chrono Trigger pits you against the Undead, Knights, Goblins and Vampires; EarthBound pits you against Hippies, UFOs, Taxis and even Coffee Mugs. Chrono Trigger features Swords, Staffs and Crossbows as weapons, EarthBound features Baseball Bats, Yo-Yos and Frying Pans. As you can see, everything in this game is the exact opposite of what is expected from RPGs.

EarthBound is set in the year 199X in a modern western country called Eagleland. Ness is a young adolescent boy who lives in the hills north of a town called Onett. Ness lives normally until one fateful night when a Meteor smashes into the hill west of his home. As he goes to check it out, little does he know that he is about to embark on the adventure of his life.

A Bee (or maybe not) named Buzz-Buzz emerges from the Meteor and tells Ness that he has come from the future to warn him that a Monster called Giygas has conquered the world - in the future. He tells Ness that he can stop Giygas if he travels all over Eagleland and finds the eight Sanctuaries to increase his power. It's a great example of how this game makes fun of RPG cliches. EarthBound is funny, very funny. From the first few minutes you know the game wants you to laugh at it. A random guy runs up to you and says “SAY FUZZY PICKLES” before taking your picture, you fight hippies that use attacks such as “Ruler” which lets the enemy figure out the length of things easily, Policemen brag their specialty is blocking off roads and this is all in the first quarter of the game.

Buzz-Buzz perishes about two seconds later in comical fashion, leaving Ness to go on his big adventure. The first Sanctuary is in a cave west of Onett, so Ness sets off on his adventure. There's basically no space for a learning curve, you're plunged right into an epic adventure. But yes, EarthBound, like any other self respecting RPG out there, is epic. It's a huge sprawling never-ending barrel of fun that spans well over 50 hours of gameplay. The fact that every second of it is gaming bliss is icing on the cake.

As Ness travels all over Eagleland from sanctuary to sanctuary, he meets friends who join him on his quest, learns psychic powers and travels from one town to the next. Levelling up is sometimes a problem in RPGs, but in EarthBound, it's perfectly judged. When you come upon a new area the enemies will be slightly stronger than you, but after ten minutes of training, you'll be destroying them. The way it works is seamless meaning there is no painful hours where all you do is battle weak enemies over and over again for experience.

Over the adventure Ness meets some friends and forms a party of four. There's Paula, a young girl with psychic powers who is kidnapped by cultists, Ness saves her and as thanks she joins him on his adventure. There's Jeff, the nerdy boy who dropped out of boarding school to help Ness and Paula and then there's the rather humorously named Prince Poo of Dalaam, who joins the gang later on in the game.

The battle system is fairly simplistic, but offers engrossing, strategic and rewarding battles. Rather than being fancy and Action Based like in Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy III, EarthBound has a turn based system. Your enemies appear in front of a nice background effect and you are given options at the top of the screen. Your party's HP and PP (psychic points) are displayed in boxes at the bottom of the screen. After you have chosen all the actions for your party the turn plays out. The character with the highest speed stat, either one of your party or an enemy, will attack first and the character with the lowest speed stat will attack last. In addition to attacking, you can defend, use items or use psychic attacks.

The psychic attacks are varied and can be used in different amounts of power. For example, you can use PSI Lifeup a to heal 100 HP for only 5pp, but you can heal 150 HP with PSI Lifeup b for 8pp. This can lead to some interesting judgement when trying to save PP. Is defeating that Hippie going to take PSI Fire a or PSI Fire b? It's up to you, and it's important because every Psychic Point counts.

The different members of your party all have their strengths and weaknesses. Ness has the highest stats of them all but lacks PP. Paula is rather weak physically but has lots of PP and psychic attacks; she can also pray to cause random events in battle. Jeff may not have any psychic powers but is an engineer, he attacks with bottle rockets and ray guns and can lay down some real damage on enemies, he can also spy on opponents and tell you their stats. Finally, Poo can mirror an enemy to copy their attacks and use them.
Because of the varied strengths and weaknesses of the party, battles can be incredibly strategic. You can get your party wiped out very quickly if you're not careful. The battle system works brilliantly.

The compelling adventure brings Ness and co. through Towns, Caves, Valleys, Tunnels, Deserts, Mines, Artefact Sites, Factories, Cities and even Alternate Dimensions. It's variety like no other. Every place you visit feels fresh and new from the last. Each one has a fitting piece of music to accompany it.

Talking about music, I'd have to say that EarthBound has what is possibly the finest soundtrack to grace a video game. It's a catchy, funky new-age score and it sounds awesome. Every tune is masterfully composed with beeping bass and thumping beats. It feels modern, it sounds modern, it is modern. It makes your foot tap like crazy. Plus, everything fits. As you walk towards an exciting new city a jazzy and uplifting theme plays. As you explore a dark cave an eerie tune invades your thoughts. If you're fighting an evenly matched battle you're given a discouraging piece of techno to (sort of, since it's so catchy) annoy you. If you're fighting an extremely weak opponent the theme is bouncy and bright because you simply can't lose. Sometimes I found myself not playing but just listening to the music. It's great stuff, so I applaud the composer.

I only have one gripe about EarthBound… no, two, the first is that it completely consumed my life for a few weeks… but apart from that, just one minor one. The visuals of the game are rather sub-par. They have a nice, colourful charm to them, but are simplistic and rather blocky. Sure, there are some rather nice background effects in battles, but that's all there is. But graphics aren't really anything… and it's more than made up for with the amazing gameplay.

In the end, EarthBound is an epic, addictive, immersive, compelling, engrossing, brilliant, hilarious and overall masterpiece of a game. It could easily be the best game of all time. They just don't make games like this anymore. They're too busy giving some emo snob from an overrated RPG his spin off game.

James Kernaghan

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/11/06