EarthBound

"This game is both underrated and overrated."

I first heard about Earthbound from Super Smash Bros. Melee, so I looked the game up and found out that it is an RPG on the SNES. Well, since I absolutely love SNES RPGs, I decided to get it. So, I looked online and WHOA!!! 80 dollars? People are selling this game for eighty (80) dollars? Used? As in previously owned and not new? That's quite a hefty price tag... but whatever. I bought it, and I was not disappointed. Sure, it really is not worth 80 dollars, but it is a good SNES game.

PRESENTATION: 9/10
This is quite a unique game. Typically when you think about RPGs, you imagine that the setting is in the middle ages or possibly even the future. However, Earthbound takes place in a modern setting. Instead of using swords, bows, and spears as weapons, you use baseball bats, yo-yos, and slingshots as weapons. Instead of using potions, tonics, and antidotes to heal yourself, you use Hamburgers, Protein Drinks, and Pizza to heal yourself. And instead of the heroes being knights, wizards, and ninjas, your heroes for this game are four normal kids (along with the occasional animal friend who attacks for you or the teddy bear who absorbs damage.)

Another thing that should be said about the presentation is the hilarious enemies that you'll come across. You'll meet all sorts of foes such as the annoying old party man, the ramblin' evil mushroom, the spiteful crow, and even a giant pile of puke! That's only a few of the many crazy enemies you'll find in this game.

Another funny thing about this game is some of the dialogue. NPCs are DEFINITELY worth talking to just to hear what hilarious thing they have to say. One NPC in the game even says, "Uhhh, please don't stand so close. I just farted." And that's only one of the many hilarious bits of dialogue you'll read during the game.

STORY: 7/10
The story for this game is somewhat cliche in a way. A meteor crashes outside of Ness's house so he, his dog and his neighbors go to investigate. Upon closer examination of the meteorite, a talking bumble bee from the future appears from the fallen rock and tells Ness that he and three friends are destined to save the world from Giygas, the evil... dude... thing. Ness's obese neighbor Pokey is reluctant to be a part of this group of destined heroes, so he refuses to help out... but for some reason he right away becomes Giygas's right-hand man. Yeah, you'll grow to hate Pokey the evil, annoying, fat, obese kid.

Other than Ness is Paula, Jeff, and Poo. They join Ness in his quest... but there's never a reason given for why they join other than "It's their destiny." I mean, you'll randomly have Paula send you a telepathic message saying, "Ness, I am Paula. I am a friend who you have never met before. Come find me." And that is pretty much EXACTLY what she says. And when Jeff is recruited, Paula randomly sends a telepathic message to him saying... almost the exact same thing. As for Poo, his addition to the team is even more random. You just switch over to his storyline and he ends up teleporting over to Ness and friends and telling them, "I am the new addition to your team!" Yeah, seems like destiny, doesn't it? Well, I say that if it was REALLY destiny, then these four people would have just ran into each other by accident during the quest instead of going COMPLETELY out of their way to meet each other.

GRAPHICS: 8/10
I'm sick of people saying that the graphics are bad. The graphics in this game are artsy. I love how all of the characters are short people with big heads and little dots for eyes, and I like the shape of various things in this game. Buildings, Trees, and clouds have a very unique shape that makes this game stand out from other RPGs. The amazing color variety in this game is also nice. A place that I especially think looks beautiful is Moonside which is a dark city that seems to be made of nothing but neon lights.

The in-battle graphics are even more amazing than the world map graphics. Battles are viewed from a first-person perspective, so you can't see your characters... but you CAN see the enemies very well. Enemies are extremely detailed, well-drawn, and well-designed in battles. Not only is there the enemy to look at, but there is also the colorful background! The background in battles is always a swirling collection of colors that seriously looks like an LSD trip (not that I know anything about what an LSD trip looks like.) Anyway, it's quite a work of art.

Another thing that should be mentioned about the in-battle graphics is that physical attacks aren't shown, but magic attacks (or PSI attacks as the game calls them) are shown. If you use a PSI attack, it will normally show a colorful animation of the attack hitting the enemy. It's always fun to watch, but a complaint I have is that Ness's Level 3 PSI Rockin attack is WAY too flashy and might give you a seizure.

Another aspect of the graphics is the text box. You'll be seeing a LOT of text boxes in this game, because just about everything is narrated. Instead of animations in battles, you'll normally get a narration of what is happening, such as "The Spiteful Crow pecked at your eyes!" and "Jeff fired the Bottle Rocket!" So how do the text boxes look? They're very simplistic and won't really catch your eye. Compared to the fancy text boxes of Chrono Trigger or Super Mario RPG, these text boxes are nothing special and look like something you'd see on the NES.

One huge complaint I have about the graphics of this game is that there is SO MUCH SLOWDOWN! There isn't a button you can press to run, and there are moments in the game where you'll find yourself walking half the speed you were walking at before because there are too many sprites on the screen. I've never ever had a SNES game do this to me, and what's ironic is that this game is not only the only SNES game I've played that has bad slowdown, but the graphics are so simplistic that it doesn't even have an excuse to have so much slowdown! This is so NES era.

SOUND: 2/10
Another thing about this game that would cause you to easily confuse it with an NES game is the sound effects. Most of the sound effects you'll hear in this game are a bunch of bleeps and bloops, but I guess that's because you'll spend most of your time navigating menus. They could've made the sound effects more exciting, but at least there's a different sound effect for when you go horizontal than when you go vertical on the menu. It adds some variety to the otherwise repetitive bleeps and bloops.

Another sound effect you'll hear is when you're smacking or shooting the enemy. If you're using a weapon that you swing, you'll hear a sort of "whoosh" sound that really sounds like an NES sound effect. (yeah, I've said NES a lot, haven't I?) And if you're using a weapon that you fire, you'll hear a... I don't know what it is... I think it's supposed to be a "pow!" or "bang" or maybe even a rubber band flicking (for a slingshot), but it also sounds very simplistic. I do, however, love the sound for when the enemy actually gets hit. It makes a "smack!" sound and it is indeed fun and satisfying to listen to.

There are also a few other sound effects that you probably won't notice. There's the sound of a door shutting, Ness's little feet walking up and down stairs, and picking up and putting down the telephone. I like the sounds for walking up the stairs and opening the door, but I think the sound for picking up the phone is very NES era.

MUSIC: 8/10
The music for this game is very good in general... but there were many tracks that I really hated. I'll start off with the tracks that I loved. I thought the music for Winters deserves special appreciation, because it sets the snowy winter mood better than any other video game I have ever played. Every time I go outside on a snowy day (and snowy days are very rare where I live!), I immediately remember the peaceful, snowy melody of Winters.

I also really loved the tracks for Moonside, Dalaam, Threed (both songs), and the Desert. Oh! The music for the Desert also deserves special appreciation. I loved the song for the desert, because it sets the mood especially well. The song starts off with a bunch of radio static and a whistling sound that sounds like a radio dial being turned. After that, a nice little cheery tune fades in and the static gradually fades away... only to return later and interrupt the song. Now, the reason why I love the desert music is because it sounds like you're in a shack in the middle of the desert and are trying to find a station on the radio. You turn the dial and find a cheery tune and listen to it until the static comes back and you have to search for that tune again. Is that setting the mood, or what?

Now for the music I don't like... well, generally every tune from every dungeon. It sounds creepy, and I know it's trying to set the mood, but the music isn't catchy and literally has no specific beat or melody to it. It's just a bunch of annoying sounds that are all coming together to freak you out. One especially scary "song" is when it sounds like a bunch of monsters are calling out a two-syllable name and it is echoing through the caves... what is the two-syllable name? I don't know... but it is especially creepy when you're like me and actually HAVE a two-syllable name! AAAAAAAHHHH!!!

The in-battle music is also MUCH better than the in-battle music for any other RPG I've played (except for Paper Mario... maybe.) But why is the in-battle music in this game the absolute best? Because it is VARIED! You'll find a wider variety of Battle music in this game than you'll find anywhere else, and the battle tunes are VERY catchy. However, one small complaint I have about the battle tunes is that the bosses in this game don't have their own unique battle themes. They just borrow battle themes from regular enemies and other bosses.

GAMEPLAY: 7/10
Phew! It's about time I got here. The most important factor of any game, and in this game it gets a 7/10. To put it bluntly to you fanatics of this game, the gameplay is nowhere near as good as the gameplay in Chrono Trigger, Paper Mario, and Super Mario RPG. Allow me to explain why. Oh, but no worries. I'll talk about the good points of the gameplay as well, because this game does indeed have its good points!

I'll start with the combat. Combat in this game is indeed turn-based. You can perform a physical attack, a psychic attack (which is like magic or techniques in other games), use an item, or use a character's special ability. Ness doesn't have a special ability, Paula can pray, Jeff can spy on the enemy, and Poo can turn into the enemy and use its attacks. However, you won't find these special abilities very useful. Prayer can help you, but it can also completely screw you over and make the battle a living nightmare by inflicting the worst status ailments on you! Jeff's spy ability is useless because all it does is tell you the enemy's weaknesses and stats when you could really be spending that turn attacking! As for Poo, his Mirror ability doesn't work half the time and even if it does, you can't control what attack he uses (if he attacks at all).

Now let's go over character stats. Ness is the best character for battle. He has high health, high attack power, and some very good psychic abilities along with a high amount of psychic power. Paula has low health and high psychic power along with some very deadly and useful psychic attacks such as PSI Freeze and PSI Fire. Jeff has high health and absolutely NO psychic power. His psychic power is replaced with the ability to fix and use gadgets. It is a VERY useful ability, because he is the only character who can use Bottle Rockets and the Heavy Bazooka which you'll find later in the game. As for Poo, he is a VERY quirky character. He can use a combination of Ness and Paula's PSI skills, but that isn't why he's quirky. He's quirky because if you feed him an item to help him recover his health or psychic power, no matter what the item is, he will always recover 6 or 7 HP... so you have to heal him with a psychic skill if you REALLY want to heal him.

One MAJOR complaint I have about this game is that whenever you acquire a new party member, their level is ALWAYS level 1. This is horrible, because it is nearly impossible for you to gain experience for them. Normally what will happen is that you will try to fight an enemy that you can normally beat with no problem on your own... and then that enemy attacks your new party member and kills em in one hit! Then if you win the battle (which you most likely will), Ness will gain experience but his new party members won't because they're dead! The only way to acquire experience for your new party members is to go into battle and just hope and pray that the enemy doesn't attack any of your party members. This problem will become even more apparent later in the game when Ness will be level 80 and the rest of his team is just about to hit the level 70 mark. Even late in the game when your party members have had the chance to level up, they STILL die in just two or three hits from the enemy while Ness can take a TON of hits! This problem wasn't around in Chrono Trigger. In Chrono Trigger, new party members started off at the same level that you were on when you found em! And even if you didn't bring some party members to battle, they'd still gain experience points and levels! Well, that doesn't happen in Earthbound.

Another problem is that you're stuck with the same party throughout the game and can't switch out party members for other ones. It's always Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo... Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo... Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo... Stan, Carman, Kyle and Kenny. Whoops! My mistake. I meant to say Stan, Kenny, Kenny and Kenny. Anyway, you will have the occasional animal accompany you and attack for you... or you can buy a teddy bear that will take the hit for certain party members if it feels like it... but those are the only times that you get to see anything relatively fresh.

Yet another gameplay problem I've had is the number of times that you will die in this game. You will find yourself dying early and often in this game, and it's always to the stupidest things! Status ailments, annoying enemies and running out of psychic power. The enemies in this game are way too overpowered at most points in the game and then childishly easy at other points in the game. The difficulty is hard and easy at the same time! I can NEVER beat the first boss in the game on my first try without a seriously insane amount of level grinding, but the bosses near the end of the game don't give me any problems at all. However, this game is extremely forgiving. If you die, you go back to WHERE you last saved instead of WHEN you last saved. This means that you get to keep all of your experience points, all the items you found, etc. I think that's a very good concept and is especially useful in this particular game. But most of the battles are still ridiculously unfair, and it's still no fun to die ALL THE TIME!

There will even be moments in the game when you actually WANT to die because the battle is a living nightmare. This normally happens when you're out of psychic power and can't heal that status ailment or use that attack that can do some decent damage to your enemy... and what a coincidence! You don't even NEED psychic powers to predict the Game Over screen in your near future!

Another thing I don't like about the combat is how inconsistent the turns are. I mean, one moment the attack order could be Ness, Jeff, Poo, Paula, enemy. But then the very next round could be Jeff, Paula, Poo, Ness, enemy. And then the very next round might be Paula, Enemy, Jeff, Ness, Poo. It is annoying especially when you have a great plan of attack and then find yourself saying, "Wait... the enemy shouldn't be attacking now!"

Another thing I hate about combat is when an enemy has a psychic power shield that can deflect your psychic attacks right back at you. You can never tell if an enemy has a shield. Not even using Jeff's spy ability will let you know if the enemy has a shield, so the only way to find out is if you hit the enemy with a psychic attack and find yourself taking the damage. It is ANNOYING.

The last thing I'll say about combat is a good thing. I like how the HP is set up. It is very original and unique... and it's a system that works in your favor! The HP is set up like the odometer on your car (well, depending on how old your car is). Instead of getting 150 HP dealt to you and immediately having 150 less HP than you had before, your HP meter starts counting down. If you were hit by an attack that would normally kill you, you still have the chance to heal or end the battle before you die. It's simple. If you're quick enough, all you do is heal or make sure you kill the enemy before your HP meter hits zero. If you succeed, you survive!

Another thing I like about combat is the narrations. I love how a complete narration is given for an enemy attack or your own attack. It really gives you a picture of what's going on and sometimes the enemies will do funny things such as laugh histerically or decide to make themself dizzy (yes, enemies will actually inflict status ailments on themselves.)

Now onto the status ailments. Good gosh do I HATE the status ailments! If you thought status ailments in other RPGs were bad, you won't believe these. You will get some of the worst status ailments at parts of the game where you can't even do anything to heal them. Perhaps the worst one is being diamondized. Your character turns into a diamond and cannot do anything... in fact, your character is so immobile while diamondized that he/she is counted as dead. So is that bad? Well, check this out. Your character can get diamondized in the blink of an eye, and I mean that quite literally. There are certain enemies that can diamondize you just by looking at you! And there is absolutely no way to defend yourself from it. No psychic shield can defend against an enemy's gaze.

Did you think Diamondized was bad? Well, here's a worse one. Ness can actually get homesick. He gets homesick randomly and if he gets this status ailment, he will almost never attack in battle. His turn will get replaced by, "Ness thought about his mom." or "Ness lost all motivation in battle." What's especially horrible about this is that you could be right in the middle of a dungeon and find out during the most difficult battle that your ingenious attack plan has been ruined by the mere fact that Ness misses his mommy. *facepalm* What kind of RPG hero misses his mommy? Crono doesn't get homesick. Anyway, if Ness the baby gets homesick, you gotta take the poor child to a telephone so he can call his mommy and get over being homesick. Pfft, what a baby.

Well, what else should I mention? The battles in this game aren't random, but they might as well be. You start battles by running into enemies on the adventure field. This wouldn't be so bad if you could avoid the enemies. The problem is that they can run twice as fast as you can. There's no point in running away from an enemy on the field because it will only chase you down and get the first attack if you try to escape. Heck, even if you don't try to run away, some enemies will literally come out of nowhere and run right into your backside so they can get the first attack. You have the option to run away during battle, but you'll fail at escaping half the time.

Okay, enough about combat and the likes. What should I mention next? How about the inventory system? The inventory system is by far the WORST inventory I've ever seen in any RPG. Space in your inventory is FAR too limited. You'll get so many key items over the course of the game that they'll be taking up all the space in your backpack and you won't have room for any healing items. Most key items don't disappear after you've used them, so you won't know whether to hang onto them or store them in the Escargo Express's checking service.

Speaking of items, you'll rarely find items that restore psychic power. Most of the time you'll end up restoring psychic power by staying at a hotel or chasing a magic butterfly all the way across town.

Another thing I should mention is the money in this game. Money you win from battles is automatically stored in the ATM machine. You will acquire tons of cash throughout the game and can afford anything that comes your way just so long as there's an ATM machine nearby. However, the problem is that you'll tend to walk around with no money because if you die (which you probably will), then you will come back with half of the money you had with you gone. It wouldn't be so bad if ATMs were always there when you needed them, but of course everybody in this game has their hand held out for some of your cash. There's one part of the game where some guy says, "Thanks for rescuing my wife. I'll tell you what, how about I give you kids a boat ride to Scaraba? 20 bucks apiece is fine with me." I mean, seriously, why do so many people ask for money and none of them are near an ATM? I don't really mind paying, but gosh. I gotta walk all the way back to the ATM machine for a small bit of cash.

So why did I give the gameplay as high of a score as 7/10 when I have so many complaints? Well, it's because this game is definitely the most forgiving game I've ever played. I mean, if you die you get to keep your experience and any items that you obtained. Plus, the money system, while inconvenient, is very safe. Also, I found that the game gets more and more fun as you continue playing. The start of the game is quite frustrating, but once you get closer to the end it is very fun. I'm also a real sucker for turn-based RPGs and I like the storyline of this game... even though it is a bit awkward.

OVERALL 7/10
This game is pretty good. I believe it deserves more appreciation than it got when it first came out, but I also believe that it is highly overrated by most of its fans. Here's a message to you fanatics of this game that claim that it's the best game ever. It is NOT the best game ever. I thought Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario were much better than this game. If you think Earthbound is the best game ever, then you haven't played Chrono Trigger.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/29/09

Game Release: EarthBound (US, 06/01/95)