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It’s that time, folks! Approximately three months after celebrating the 24th anniversary of EarthBound’s North American release, we’re back to share more of our thoughts on EarthBound in honor of the game’s 25th anniversary in Japan.
Back in June, we at The Punished Backlog kicked off our celebration of EarthBound with the announcement that several members of our team would be playing through the game for the very first time. Now, at the tail-end of August, we return with tales of gold digging, pyramid climbing, UFO sightings, and fuzzy pickles.
Read on for our full thoughts on all things EarthBound!
Update (8/29/19): The article has been tweaked to include some updated thoughts from David, following his completion of the game a few days after initial publication.
EarthBound Exit Survey
Playthrough participants: Sam Martinelli, Anna Hickey, David Silbert
Estimated game length: 28 to 36.5 hours (source: How Long to Beat)
Survey questions: For those who might need a refresher, was this your first time playing EarthBound? If not, how many times have you played it before?
If your goal was to complete the game, did you succeed? If not, how far did you make it?
Total playtime?
What were your expectations going into your playthrough?
At a high level, did EarthBound meet your expectations? Was there anything that surprised you in particular about the game that you weren’t expecting going in?
What were you most impressed by with EarthBound?
Conversely, what left you most underwhelmed during your playthough?
EarthBound is known for its quirky characters and “out-there” writing. Did you enjoy the game’s story? What did you think about the localization effort?
Combat is a big part of the EarthBound experience. What were your thoughts on the game’s battle system? Did the game do anything to push the needle regarding how you view turn-based combat?
Explorable towns are a staple of most RPG franchises. How’d you like EarthBound’s take on towns? Do you have a particular favorite, and if so, why?
How’d you feel about the game’s length? Too long? Too short?
Thoughts on the final boss fight? If you didn’t know the “trick” beforehand, how long did it take you to figure it out?
Given EarthBound’s SNES roots, how do you feel the game stacks up to rival JRPGs on the platform? (Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, Super Mario RPG, etc.)
Remind our audience: For our playthrough preview article, what score did you give EarthBound in terms of what you were expecting out of the experience?
Having played the game in some capacity, either fully or partially, would you revise the score? If so, what would you give it now, in hindsight?
In summary, how would you describe EarthBound? Would you recommend Ness’ adventure to a friend or colleague?
Sam Martinelli
For those who might need a refresher, was this your first time playing EarthBound? If not, how many times have you played it before?
This was not my first attempt at playing EarthBound, but the first time I played it for more than twenty minutes.
If your goal was to complete the game, did you succeed? If not, how far did you make it?
I did! I played the entire main story and managed to do a couple of things on the side (mainly just getting more “Fuzzy Pickles” photo ops).
Total playtime?
I would say somewhere between 25-30 hours, plus an additional 5 hours if we adjust for the number of times I used the rewind feature on the SNES Classic (I use this feature constantly; I’m very bad at video games apparently).
What were your expectations going into your playthrough?
Based on the game’s style and the way people talk about it, I was expecting a unique experience, one that didn’t draw as much from Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest as its contemporaries did. I was also anticipating some grueling battles and highly restrictive RPG systems, as RPGs from that era often stuck to frustrating mechanics like random encounters and a clunky item management system.
At a high level, did EarthBound meet your expectations? Was there anything that surprised you in particular about the game that you weren’t expecting going in?
In terms of its presentation and world, EarthBound absolutely met expectations. Everything about it is patently absurd: the characters’ names, the bizarre locales, and strange ways of performing basic RPG tasks set this game apart from the crowd, and it constantly lends itself to humor with its unusual questlines (there was a LOT riding on that trout yogurt). In addition, it’s a game about little kids, so even the darker and gloomier side of EarthBound is portrayed through that lens. I expected all of that going in, since I was already aware of characters like Mr. Saturn, Poo, and the Starman villains. I thought I would play through a story that’s weird and silly, and that’s exactly what happened.
What I wasn’t expecting, however, was the story to be so moving in such an earnest manner. On the surface, EarthBound is goofy and childlike, but sometimes a brief conversation or character interaction brings everything down to… earth (sorry) and adds gravitas to the game. Whether it’s Jeff’s friend Tony, the kids at Paula’s school, Ness’ phone calls with his mother, or the letters everyone writes to Ness at the end of the game, EarthBound’s best story beats feel genuinely human, and for a second make you forget that you’re collecting magical harmonies to offset an incoming alien invasion.
What were you most impressed by with EarthBound?
At its peak, EarthBound is one of the finest turn-based RPGs I’ve ever played. The combat, while unique in its presentation, felt more intuitive and interesting than what I had experienced in Final Fantasy VI, and while some battles are particularly challenging, I never felt like I was grossly underleveled or unprepared for any scenario. Each playable character has a distinct role in each battle, and nobody is fundamentally less valuable than anyone else. Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo all matter equally in nearly every important battle, and the different skills and talents each one had allowed me to approach every fight with a number of different strategies in mind.
Conversely, what left you most underwhelmed during your playthrough?
The item management is frustrating and counter-intuitive. Preparing for an adventure to a new town or region often felt like checking off a packing list your mom makes before your yearly trip to visit your grandparents, except your suitcase is too small and you never know which previously important vacation items are going to matter later on. Beyond that, while I enjoyed EarthBound’s procedurally generated approach to enemy encounters, certain caves and other areas are nearly impossible to navigate without wasting all of your energy on baddies that seemingly pop out of nowhere and can’t be avoided.
EarthBound is known for its quirky characters and “out-there” writing. Did you enjoy the game’s story? What did you think about the localization effort?
I enjoyed the plot on a case-by-case basis. As I mentioned earlier, the little talks between characters served as the greatest narrative beats in the whole game, and many of the weirder story sequences were memorable, terrifying, and enthralling (e.g. Happy Happy Village, Moonside, the Lost Underworld). Still, the game is long enough that some parts of its story fall flat, whether it’s because they feel comparatively low-stakes or because they lack the heart that emanates through other parts of the game.
In terms of localization, EarthBound is a fascinating case study, since it was written by a Japanese man trying to capture an authentic small-town American experience and present it, first and foremost, to Japanese gamers. I’m not aware of any significant differences between the U.S. and Japanese versions of the game (besides the title), but it was fun to see a foreign company (25 years ago, no less) succeed in depicting American life through the eyes of a child, in some cases through satire (religious cults, fast food, shopping malls) and in other cases with reverence (Jeff’s school in Winters, the beachside community in Summers, Ness’ relationship with his family).
Combat is a big part of the EarthBound experience. What were your thoughts on the game’s battle system? Did the game do anything to push the needle regarding how you view turn-based combat?
As I said earlier, the combat was a lot better than I had expected. The variety of combat options and different PSI moves helped make EarthBound a very enjoyable gameplay experience, and the whittled-down animations and text-based flow allowed me to imagine the events of each fight in whatever way I wanted. The difficulty ramps up a bit in the game’s final few hours, where it seems like an impossibility to make it through certain areas alive, but the consequences of each battle aren’t quite as punishing as they are in other JRPGs. In addition, I loved how the battle music wasn’t super intense and epic-sounding; it often involved trippy MIDI-synth melodies, funky bass lines, and the occasional ode to 50’s style rock ‘n’ roll. The sounds of each fight made the combat feel less like a contest for glory and more like a different form of basic interaction with the foes and creatures inhabiting the game’s world.
Turn-based systems are fairly hit-or-miss in my book. They can either provide players with a wide array of intriguing strategies to make the experience feel like it’s theirs, or they could be a clumsy roadblock in between story beats. EarthBound hasn’t fundamentally changed my view of turn-based battles, but it confirmed for me that they have a place in any game as long as the player has enough flexibility within each system to play however they want and as long as enemy encounters don’t fundamentally hinder the experience.
Explorable towns are a staple of most RPG franchises. How’d you like EarthBound’s take on towns? Do you have a particular favorite, and if so, why?
The towns might be where EarthBound’s world shines brightest. Onett and Twoson look and feel like real American places instead of cliche RPG quest wells. Sure, each locale serves a specific set of narrative purposes, but EarthBound’s take on American urban and suburban life makes space for arcades, toy stores, libraries, museums, pizzerias, ice cream shops, and other fixtures of a typical day in the U.S. While many RPGs tend to build these towns so that everything has to serve the player in some way, EarthBound presents several arenas of normal, everyday activity, and it’s fun in and of itself to explore each town and learn about how basic townspeople are feeling about their day.
I’m not sure I can pick a favorite, but was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed walking around Onett for the first time. Just the idea that I’d have to watch out for cars and rely on a burger joint to supply me with healing items helped immerse me in the world in tangible ways, something a lot of games about “real life” often fail to do.
How’d you feel about the game’s length? Too long? Too short?
Most games are too long in my opinion, especially linear RPGs. I think EarthBound certainly could have used some editing, particularly once you get the teleport ability and the game opens up a little bit, since the ability only becomes available once you have to travel between several different areas as part of one quest. I wouldn’t say, overall, that the experience was far longer than it should have been, but I also wouldn’t have minded spending a little less time in the Dusty Dunes Desert and the Deep Darkness Swamp.
Thoughts on the final boss fight? If you didn’t know the “trick” beforehand, how long did it take you to figure it out?
Whew, you ready? Here we go…
As a final boss fight, the battle against Giygas is one of the best and most memorable I’ve ever played. What seems at first to be an impossible task ends up becoming manageable once you learn that the greatest powers of all are friendship and prayer (I already had the “trick” spoiled to me well before I ever played the game). Though Poo was out for most of my encounter with the final villain, I was able to utilize the rest of my team in a number of ways to keep Paula praying for the holiest of powers to take down the wretched beast. It was awesome to see how many friends along the way were praying for me to succeed, and I was moved at how many characters were involved (including, well, the player himself). The battle was exciting, moving, and fun… and it made me a little bit uncomfortable.
One of the ongoing motifs of EarthBound is its exploration of the “right” and “wrong” ways for people to practice their religious beliefs. The cult at Happy Happy Village is an example of the “wrong” way to do it, and the game periodically reminds the player of the dangers associated with a false idol (the Mani Mani Statue). Pokey’s various misadventures throughout the experience underscore the susceptibility of young people and how easily they are drawn to sin, while Ness and his coterie represent the challenges of maintaining a principled and moral front. Once I got to the part in the fight against Giygas where prayer is the only way to defeat him, I realized that praying was not merely another mechanic in the game: it’s the central message of the whole experience, namely that prayer is ultimately the strongest and most effective way to change the world, and that if everyone prays together, then things will get better. I’m not exactly a fan of that message, and I think it undercuts the greatest draw of an RPG: to feel like the choices you make and actions you perform have a direct outcome on the world around you.
I’m not a religious person myself, though I’m generally cool with others expressing their own beliefs as long as they don’t harm or wrongfully judge anyone else because of them. One place where I draw the line, however, is at the notion that “thoughts and prayers” actually mean anything beyond face-value comfort. Actions mean more than words, and the final fight in EarthBound suggests that prayer itself is an action, since Paula was able to subdue her greatest foe through it. While it works wonderfully in practice, the language around the praying mechanic made EarthBound feel unusually preachy for a Nintendo game, and part of me wished the whole experience ended a little differently.
Once the fight was over and I had time to ruminate over what had just transpired, I felt like the game was telling me how I’m supposed to feel about the power of prayer. It’s a nice message if you believe in that kind of stuff, but personally I reject the notion that coming together in the name of religion fixes anything, much less takes down an amorphous demon/alien. In a day and age where innocent people are gunned down randomly and frequently while simply minding their own business, I just can’t abide the promotion of a “thoughts and prayers” ideology as a form of progress or solution to our problems.
Then again, I also believe that I can fully enjoy and appreciate a work of art without agreeing with its politics 100%. Therefore, I can appreciate what the Big N was going for with the Giygas fight and admit that I fully enjoyed the experience while it was happening, even if the religiosity of it rubbed me the wrong way. The “pray” mechanic is interesting and fun to use in its own right, and the way it was used in the final battle was well constructed and consistent with much of EarthBound’s story and atmosphere.
Given EarthBound’s SNES roots, how do you feel the game stacks up to rival JRPGs on the platform? (Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, Super Mario RPG, etc.)
I might be the wrong person to ask about this particular subject, but I’d rank it below Chrono Trigger, my personal favorite RPG on the platform, and above everything else I’ve played (which is about half of Super Mario RPG and a few hours of Final Fantasy VI). It might have the most interesting world and characters of any SNES RPG, but just doesn’t come together quite as seamlessly as Chrono Trigger does. I appreciate EarthBound’s humor and engaging battle system, but Chrono Trigger beats EarthBound on so many other fronts that I can’t put any RPG on the console above it.
Remind our audience: For our playthrough preview article, what score did you give EarthBound in terms of what you were expecting out of the experience?
I originally gave a “hype” score of 6/10 on the basis that I typically don’t enjoy these kinds of games as much as others, so I didn’t want to hype myself up too much.
Having played the game in some capacity, either fully or partially, would you revise the score? If so, what would you give it now, in hindsight?
Absolutely! Now that I’ve completed the game, I’d say it deserves maybe an 8/10 or 8.5/10, AKA a really good game with a handful of flaws that prevent me from rating it higher.
In summary, how would you describe EarthBound? Would you recommend Ness’ adventure to a friend or colleague?
EarthBound is a very good RPG, and one of the more unique experiences available on the Super Nintendo. More importantly, it’s a game I could write about forever. The way the game approaches topics like religion, authoritarianism, capitalism, and American splendor is ripe for thoughtful criticism, and there’s plenty of interesting dialogue and character development to study. Basically, while I might not call EarthBound the most “fun” game out there, it is one of the most interesting I’ve played in years, and something whose themes and events I expect to explore in further detail. I would recommend the game to anyone who cares about this kind of stuff as much as I do.
Anna Hickey
For those who might need a refresher, was this your first time playing EarthBound? If not, how many times have you played it before?
I was a total EarthBound newbie and also pretty inexperienced in terms of both SNES games and JRPGs in general. Pretty sure the only SNES game I’ve played is A Link to the Past..
If your goal was to complete the game, did you succeed? If not, how far did you make it?
My goal was to complete the game and I did not succeed. I fell out of love with it prematurely, I’m afraid. Although I’m still unsure whether it’s me or the game at fault here. As soon as I could buy and use the Multi-Bottle Rocket in the Pyramid I pretty much threw in the towel.
Total playtime?
Probably like 20+ hours? Again, I didn’t finish it, but I definitely spent more time than I really needed to grinding in some areas.
What were your expectations going into your playthrough?
I was expecting a weird game at the level of a children’s tale you forgot was kinda messed up for a kids story, if that makes sense? There was also a more hopeful part of me that half expected EarthBound to turn me into more of a JRPG fan than I typically am. Like many esteemed video games, you hear this title in so many passing references and lists it almost can’t be helped but to expect greatness — for better or worse. That might be why I’m going to be relatively harsh on this game in this little piece at the time of writing it. I was more or less picturing a Pokémon game, but with children, a party of up to four, and slightly different rules in terms of gameplay.
At a high level, did EarthBound meet your expectations? Was there anything that surprised you in particular about the game that you weren’t expecting going in?
I didn’t expect to have such mixed feelings about the game — that’s for sure.
In terms of how much I expected to enjoy playing the game, I have to admit, I was seriously disappointed. I consider myself to be a relatively patient gamer (if not a bit of an overachiever) when it comes to completing games, particularly when I’m really invested in them. Whenever I sat down to put some hours into EarthBound, I could almost feel my enjoyment of the game leaking out of my body as I played. Playing it was like pouring water into a bucket, and as time went on, a hole grew larger and larger in the bottom of the bucket. Eventually the hole grew so much the bucket began to lose water overall, which is about when I decided I really didn’t want to keep playing EarthBound. Playing on my own, it was a slow, waterlogged, and complete death of interest — something I never would’ve expected my experience to be from such a highly regarded game. In case you are wondering, bad design was the main culprit for me (and I’m sure I can go into greater detail about that in later questions).
But EarthBound’s weird charms and seemingly inexplicable popularity were enough to make me try a different approach, just to see what would happen in the end of the game. As I watched a playthrough of the game’s later parts I found myself starting to fall for it again — pretty hard. I almost regret not finishing it myself after finding out what happens in the rest of the game. All of a sudden the game had captivated me again, which was a complete surprise!
To be honest, this schism between my experience playing and watching EarthBound kind of cries out “not a great game” to me. And I hate to be so negative about such a classic, well-loved game, but in my book a game that is more fun to watch than to play has some serious failings considering its form of media.
What were you most impressed by with EarthBound?
While the overall execution of EarthBound left me feeling like it was a little less than the sum of its parts, there are loads of great ideas at play. The music was great, and the locales and antics were unique and enjoyable. I love the idea of a sort of motley crew of children coming together to save the world using a combination of baseball bats, gadgets, and psychic powers to fight ants, zombies, animated objects, and aliens under a mysterious evil influence. Pokey the annoying rich neighbor kid joining up with a corrupt businessman/mayor and ultimately the formless evil that is Giygas was certainly an entertaining narrative thread.
I think the most impressive thing about EarthBound is the undeniable amount of heart this game has in it. Sure, there are some issues I have with the writing of character dialog that I will go into later. In the long run, though, the game is clearly trying to make the world feel as though it is populated and has people worth saving in it. And there are so many little touches to the main crew that clue you in towards their feelings. I especially love that Ness needs to call home periodically or he will get homesick. Adorable! You kind of need that combination of seeing who you’re saving and a little bit of main-character emotional feedback in a game about saving the world, I think. I really appreciate that this game goes for that even if I don’t love the execution of it.
Conversely, what left you most underwhelmed during your playthough?
Oh, hands down the overall design. From the combat mechanics to the movement speed to the menu functionality, I have a lot of issues with the design of this game that happen to detract significantly from the experience in my opinion. I’m sure this won’t be the case for everyone, however.
- Such a weird overworld initially that it’s hard to tell there’s been a paradigm shift in the world when aliens come.
- Bicycle is useless almost as soon as you get it.
- Movement speed is too slow for efficient travel.
- Movement speed is not fast enough to outrun or surprise-attack enemies.
- Poorly explained enemy powers and motives (i.e. why are angry ants a Giygas thing? Where did Giygas come from? Did I miss something?).
- No enemy health bar.
- Escargo express only lets you transfer three items at a time.
- Limited carryable storage space for an arguably item-heavy game.
- Transportation PSI not designed for most spaces in the world.
- Extremely limited number of PP-restoring items.
- I’m pretty sure PSI Flash doesn’t actually work, but I could just be dumb.
- Death mechanic is only a consequence because of how inconvenient and time-consuming it is to get the party revived and back up to full health.
- Inefficient and inconvenient saving mechanic.
- I’m gonna go ahead and say just about every menu is clunkier than it needs to be.
- Expensive items can be acquired with grinding but you end up overleveled and at that point you don’t need the equipment or you could’ve backtracked and bought it later.
Maybe I’m just a salty bitch off in my own little world, you tell me (or don’t). I just don’t want to ignore these things entirely because I felt they detracted from the overall quality of the experience and many of them could have been streamlined with a little more consideration put into the user experience.
EarthBound is known for its quirky characters and “out-there” writing. Did you enjoy the game’s story?
I love weird shit, so I am very much down for a lot of the things this game throws at you. Or at least I am at a conceptual level. Future alien/space bee telling a child about his destiny to save the Earth? Dope dope dope dope, cool cool cool cool. Catching zombies with undead fly paper? Fucking fantastic, that’s almost never an option. Using a combination of bubble gum, a monkey, and basically the Loch Ness monster to help a child escape boarding school? Delightful. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Abstract art (which is technically too representational to be considered abstract art — it’s more like surrealism) and piles of barf attacking you? Why not. Having a psychic episode in which some kind of spirit cuts off a kid’s ~spiritual~ limbs, ears, and eyes in order to master the fictional power of Mu? Um, obvs. I needed that fictional magic in this character yesterday. Robot soul transference for time travel and whatever Magicant was? HELL YEAH HELL YEAH.
Great! Love it! I am all for this nonsense! But I’m also all for good pacing in the overarching narrative and well-executed weird character writing, which I’m not sure I really found in my playthrough.
I wasn’t that impressed with the character dialog. And I’m having difficulty explaining why. Everyone in the world felt sort of analogously quirky in the same way, which is to say that by a certain point quirky became the expectation. The characters became less entities unto themselves and more like mouthpieces through which the game can communicate to the player. On this site we consider video games to be forms of art and I would like to incorporate some painting terms to explain what I mean here because they help me conceptualize my feelings.
The terms I’m talking about are multiplicity and unity. Multiplicity refers to a clear distinction between the figures within a frame. You could basically cut out the figures from a painting that exhibits extreme multiplicity and have them be totally complete without the rest of the painting. There is no visual overlap between the figure and any part of the painting, the figure is posed in such a way that their entire body is distinct, etc. In a painting exhibiting extreme unity, the figures within the painting would be crossing over each other so much that none of them would be recognizable without the wider context of the painting.
For the purely visual storytelling found in paintings, I often find a greater use of unity to be more compelling because of the limited means through which you can communicate with the medium. In mixed media and literary works that are largely character-driven, however, I prefer a greater sense of multiplicity within the characters. This sentiment is part of a larger gripe I have with video game writing as a whole, and I don’t think I’ve quite ironed out this particular thesis yet. Apologies if none of this translates or makes sense.
Maybe it’s just that the whole “all the people you met along the way” thing at the end really didn’t connect for me? Especially because all the people I met felt so samey after a certain point in the game. They didn’t feel like characters independent of their work; they felt like video game NPCs and little more.
After playing most of this game and watching the end, I feel like I know what this game was going for in its narrative. And I feel like it sadly failed to deliver it on a few key points. That doesn’t mean I think the story was bad or uninteresting. I just don’t really think I can consider it a masterpiece the way the game presents itself as a whole.
Combat is a big part of the EarthBound experience. What were your thoughts on the game’s battle system? Did the game do anything to push the needle regarding how you view turn-based combat?
Rolling points was cool. I really didn’t like the combat, though.
Explorable towns are a staple of most RPG franchises. How’d you like EarthBound’s take on towns? Do you have a particular favorite, and if so, why?
I’m going to go with Onett as my favorite town. The music from it was delightfully funky and got stuck in my head outside of the game, which is all I could ever ask of video game music to be honest. Also, Ness’s family is in the area, I own (shitty) property there, and the town has a library and a secret hideout in the woods. I cut my teeth on the game there, you know? Good vibes all around.
How’d you feel about the game’s length? Too long? Too short?
Too long. This game is just a little too ambitious for its own good.
Thoughts on the final boss fight? If you didn’t know the “trick” beforehand, how long did it take you to figure it out?
I did not get to this part myself, but I probably would’ve gotten it eventually because I regularly used Paula’s prayer ability in battle because I am a sucker for a random effect attack and high luck stat build. Just ask fellow TPB writer Theo about my Dungeons and Dragons character.
From a narrative perspective, I didn’t love this little trick. Also Pokey literally tells you what to do in the fight.
Given EarthBound’s SNES roots, how do you feel the game stacks up to rival JRPGs on the platform? (Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, Super Mario RPG, etc.)
I haven’t really played many JRPGs, so it’s hard to say. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that perhaps my lack of context for the wider world of JRPGs might be a huge factor to my experience with EarthBound by comparison to the vast majority of people who have experienced EarthBound and the Mother series from within that context.
Remind our audience: For our playthrough preview article, what score did you give EarthBound in terms of what you were expecting out of the experience?
7/10 was my expected score, which was a culmination of the score I thought I would give it plus some extra for how beloved it is.
Having played the game in some capacity, either fully or partially, would you revise the score? If so, what would you give it now, in hindsight?
So I have never officially rated a game on this website before and I may live to regret this, but by our own site’s grading scale I think I’m going to tentatively give EarthBound a 5.9 or a 6 out of 10. Maybe I’m crazy and I should give it more points for what it’s clearly trying to achieve by the end.
Or maybe I should stick to my guns. Maybe I should say that I acknowledge a lot of flaws in this game. So many flaws, in fact, that I didn’t even want to finish it myself and I completely stopped playing it. I don’t think that kind of thing should happen in a game that anyone would want to play and enjoy regardless of genre or venerated status.
In summary, how would you describe EarthBound? Would you recommend Ness’ adventure to a friend or colleague?
Have you ever had a friend who really loved a very specific type of old car? Maybe they love the unique way the car looks or feels. Maybe it’s the history of how the car was made or the materials that went into the car that make it sparkle in your friend’s eyes. Maybe the car has a lot of things on it that really need to be replaced or updated in order for the car to function smoothly. But your friend just loves this car and is willing to put in the necessary effort to work with the car despite its flaws. Clearly you’re missing something on the whole loving the old car thing. At the same time, however, you can absolutely recognize the love that your friend has for the thing even if you are just not at all on the same page.
This is kind of how I feel about EarthBound, if that makes any sense to you. I don’t really get it experiencing it for myself, but I get the experience other people get from it. Let’s say I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to a friend or colleague who’s into old cars.
Also Tony is gay for Jeff. Change my mind, I dare you.
David Silbert
For those who might need a refresher, was this your first time playing EarthBound? If not, how many times have you played it before?
As with Sam and Anna, this was my first time playing EarthBound (I played it for like 20 minutes on Wii U a few years back, but I doubt that really counts).
If your goal was to complete the game, did you succeed? If not, how far did you make it?
Yep! Proud to say I made it all the way through the game — consider it officially checked off of my backlog. Quite the experience!
Total playtime?
Using the SNES classic’s suspend-point clock for a rough estimate (since anytime I saved manually at phones and started a new save state, the clock would reset), I’d say my final playtime was somewhere around 25 hours.
What were your expectations going into your playthrough?
Going into EarthBound, I was expecting many things: quirky enemies, exotic locales, charming characters, tight combat, and excellent music. I’ve just heard so many things about the game over the years — particularly from one of my college friends, who would absolutely swear by the game and loved sharing little tidbits about it, such as how to level up fast, the trick to beating Giygas, and which PSI moves were “broken.” I also had high expectations due to my love for Ness in Super Smash Bros. — his moveset always seemed unique compared to many of the other combatants, and I was interested to finally experience the origin story to PK Fire, Thunder, Flash, Magnet, Starstorm, etc.
At a high level, did EarthBound meet your expectations? Was there anything that surprised you in particular about the game that you weren’t expecting going in?
In many ways, EarthBound met my expectations, and even exceeded some of my wildest ones. Its world is exciting in all the right ways, with breathtaking town and cityscapes, joyous sights and sounds to behold, and an intricacy and level of detail that rivals some of the best of the SNES era. At the same time, however, the game left me hanging in more ways than one, from the consistency of its writing and pieces of its story, to many of the individual systems that make up its exploration and combat. It certainly has left a permanent mark on me, and will have a place in my heart long after I finish playing; but to say wholeheartedly that EarthBound hasn’t aged a bit since it was first released in 1994 would be to oversell it a tad.
What were you most impressed by with EarthBound?
It would be a crime if I didn’t choose two separate, yet related, elements of EarthBound: its worldbuilding and its music. Having played countless Western and Japanese RPGs over the years, I find that, time and time again, perhaps the most important part of any self-respecting fantasy game is its atmosphere. Setting goes such a long way towards grounding players in any particular world — think Tamriel in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Gaia in Final Fantasy VII, or Azeroth in World of Warcraft. These places all share common traits, from massive cities with deep-rooted histories to sprawling countrysides with lush greenery.
EarthBound delivers on its setting with a wonderful confidence. Each of its areas, from Ness’s hometown of Onett to the rambunctious city of Fourside, exudes character. When I first strolled down the streets of Onett for the very first time, I quickly became enamored with the sheer detail that developers Ape and HAL Laboratory put into the town’s buildings and populace. Bakeries, drugstores, hospitals, hotels, flea markets, theaters, circus rings, department stores… you name it, and it’s probably here. Above all else, EarthBound goes to great lengths to craft a world that feels that it’s been lived in.
A lot of this is owed to EarthBound’s stellar soundtrack. Far less orthodox than a traditional Final Fantasy or Tales of soundtrack, EarthBound plays with many themes and instrumentations to really drive home the sense of scale to its world. “Let the Adventure Begin (Onett Theme),” for instance, employs a peppy baseline and xylophone to give off a classic “Saturday morning cartoons” vibe — a perfect fit for the hometown of a kid like Ness. “One Day for Sure (Threed Theme),” meanwhile, acts as a melancholy “after the storm” following the zombie infestation that plagued the town until Ness, Paula, and Jeff rolled through. And “Held in a Skyscraper (Fourside Theme)” gives off a warm fuzziness befitting of the awe and wonder of Ness’s first visit to the big city.
I could go on. “Private Breeze (Summers Theme)” is equal parts calming and sleazy — perhaps an ode to the fact that the place is a complete ripoff of a resort locale, with exorbitant prices and a freakin’ rock-staring club (more on that later). “The Traveller Can Hear the Song (Dalaam Theme)” is an exotic, Chinese-influenced piece that gives the sense that Prince Poo is traveling from the ends of the earth to aid Ness and his friends — the world is at stake, after all.
And there’s more than just the towns themselves. The “A Hospital’s Quality Care (Hospital Theme)” has ingrained itself into my brain with its slick intro, while “Enjoy Your Stay (Hotel Theme)” has such a foreboding feel that it could honestly be slipped into the upcoming Luigi’s Mansion 3 without a hitch. “Home Sweet Home,” which plays at both Ness’s home and at the Polestar Preschool in Twoson, is instantly nostalgic — likely a nod to Ness’s feelings of homesickness throughout his journey and his desire to someday return to his family. “A Flash of Memory,” which graces players following the defeat of a baddie guarding one of Ness’s eight santuaries, is another sombre tune, highlighting the progress of Ness’s journey — both external and internal. Even “You Win!” has an oddly nostalgic — almost trance-inducing — sound to it, despite serving as the game’s victory theme; I often would sit at the end of a battle and gather my thoughts, just to let the track’s soothing melody play a bit longer.
And, of course, we have my favorite: “Boy Meets Girl (Twoson Theme).” Rest assured, it was just as exciting to experience this song in-game as I’d prophesied during my pre-play preview.
Conversely, what left you most underwhelmed during your playthough?
Man, the combat. As I said before, I’ve played plenty of RPGs. Turn-based, action-time-battle (ATB), tactical, real-time… I’ve seen them all over the years, and while I don’t claim to have a particular preference towards any one type of RPG or RPG combat, I do feel like I’ve played enough to know a good battle system from a bad one. And EarthBound’s combat falls closer to the latter than the former, unfortunately.
It’s not bad, per se — let me get that out of the way, first off. The lack of random encounters is a welcome design choice (I don’t mind them in Final Fantasy, but then again, it sure was nice not having to deal with them at all in Chrono Trigger or Paper Mario). The game also errs on the side of simplicity with its combat encounters, which is far from a bad thing in the realm of JRPGs (Lost Odyssey is a prime example of a turn-based title that lost me for the sole reason that its combat was far too convoluted to be enjoyable). However, for the vast majority of my time with EarthBound, I found that most enemy encounters and bosses could be brute-forced in the same exact way: attack and heal with Ness, use powerful area-of-effect PSI attacks with Paula, hurl your biggest rockets with Jeff, and do a bit of everything with Poo. Unlike games like Final Fantasy and Persona that force players to adapt to their enemies or suffer the consequences, EarthBound was simply content to let me fight the same way, the whole way through.
Exacerbating the issue is EarthBound’s troublesome pacing. For those unfamiliar with the game, EarthBound allows players to choose one of three text speeds (Slow, Normal, Fast). At first, I started on Normal (and why not? It’s not like I’ve ever had a problem with text speeds in a game before). However, by the six- to eight-hour mark, I had simply had enough; dialogue moved at a snail’s pace, and even the easiest of combat encounters took what felt like forever.
In an unprecedented move, I changed the text speed to fast. Immediately, I saw a difference. Battles started to fly by, characters began to talk with a vitesse actually befitting of a normal conversation, and I began to see some semblance of speed during my playthrough of the game. To be clear, it’s not like I was trying to speedrun EarthBound — but when you consider everything from the slow text, to sluggish movement speed, to not being able to use your bike after Paula joins your party (Seriously? Rent a second bike geniuses!), it often felt like EarthBound was desperately trying to sabotage my desire to give it a fair shake.
Case in point? The game’s atrocious use of rolling HP in game. Essentially, if a character takes damage and his/her HP begins to fall, you can minimize the damage by defeating all enemies before the number fully ticks down (that includes mortal damage, so essentially even dying can be prevented). On paper, this is a neat idea that gives players an extra tool in their belt and rewards those who can think on their feet. In reality, however, the feature is wasted on painfully slow text speeds and obtuse menus. Even with the text speed cranked up to 11, it felt like EarthBound was intentionally forcing me to mash through encounters in order to minimize damage and maximize efficiency. In a game where so much attention and care has been taken to build out its world and setting, the combat feels like an unfortunate afterthought.
Oh, and Anna’s completely right. That inventory system… yikes. I’m sure those who designed it had good intentions, but I’d be lying if I said that pausing the game every 5 to 10 minutes to drop/sell an item and make room in my limited backpack was a fun use of my time (For Sale Sign, you da real MVP). Plus, only being able to send three things at a time to storage, and requiring not just to call Ness’s sister Tracy repeatedly, but to listen through the same exact dialogue ad nauseam (Yes, Tracy, we know you have a part-time job with Escargo Express; we’ve been over it.) and then pay the delivery dude $18 on top of it?! If I were Ness, I’d be friggin’ pissed.
EarthBound is known for its quirky characters and “out-there” writing. Did you enjoy the game’s story? What did you think about the localization effort?
I’m sort of mixed on the topic of EarthBound’s writing. When the game begins, I feel like we’re sort of thrown into the game’s story without a proper introduction, not to mention some rather weird dialogue choices from the game’s developers (So the mother is just… cool with Ness up and leaving in the middle of the night to *check notes* meet up with a bunch of other PSI-sensitive kids in order to save the universe? M’kay).
There are also some weirder choices when it comes to the game’s translation. One in particular that comes to mind is the decision to say that a character’s “HP are maxed out” after Ness or Poo’s lifeup fully restores their health. While grammatically correct (HP stands for hitpoints, after all), why not just say “Ness’s health was fully restored”? Oftentimes, EarthBound’s dialogue and characters gave off a robotic feel to me that threw me during my playtime. Of course, the game is naturally weird — I think we all get that — but sometimes, the writing itself seemed to transcend the weirdness that the developers had intended, entering its own stratosphere of silliness.
Branching out a bit, this next-level silliness doesn’t just apply to the writing. For example, whenever the weird-ass photographer with the top hat randomly descends to take Ness’s photo and shout “say fuzzy pickles!” like some raging lunatic, why is it that Paula, Jeff, and Poo never react to the photos themselves? Where’s the love between friends? Was it all in Ness’s head? Were they dead the whole time?
In all seriousness, I make this joke to articulate a point. Outside of a few lines of dialogue that mark several key moments in the story (Paula reaching out to Ness when he’s sleeping, Jeff joining the party for the first time, Poo leaving the party temporarily to learn PSI Starstorm, etc.), EarthBound has surprisingly little dialogue between characters for a game that is so story-driven. People complained that the recent Octopath Traveler suffered from a lack of intra-party dialogue, but if EarthBound is supposedly an exemplar of fine JRPG character building, then Octopath Traveler is practically a Jane Austen novel.
All things being equal, I found the writing, characters, and pacing in EarthBound to really come into their own during the latter half of the game — specifically, from Fourside onward. Some of the scenarios on the back nine are, frankly, absolutely bloody fantastic, and the game becomes a roller-coaster ride of variety that whisks players off to various locales that just get cooler and cooler the more you play. There’s Moonside, which is perhaps the trippiest moment I’ve ever experienced in a video game. Later on, there’s Summers, which nearly had me dying of laughter of the absurdity of Stoic Club participants getting their kicks by worshiping a rock. We also have the incredibly vivid vignette of Poo offering up his body on a platter as a means of mastering Mu, as well as the super meta Dungeon Man zone (complete with a track that actually makes me want to reconsider what I just said about Moonside). If that wasn’t enough, we’re graced with the perspective-altering Lost Underworld, which shrinks Ness down to the size of an ant in order to illustrate just how massive dinosaurs can be (the fact that you can visit a museum in Fourside with replica dino bones is a nice touch). And, of course, we have Giygas, the final victory lap, and an intimate credit scene that — plot twist! — even takes the time to thank the player for, well, playing. Doesn’t get much better than that, if you ask me.
Combat is a big part of the EarthBound experience. What were your thoughts on the game’s battle system? Did the game do anything to push the needle regarding how you view turn-based combat?
As I said before, I wasn’t in love with the game’s combat. It certainly improved once I upped the text speed, that’s for sure, and the inclusion of all four characters about halfway through the game definitely adds some nuance to the combat that simply wasn’t there when I was just starting off with Ness or Ness and Paula alone.
I will say, though, that if anything, EarthBound’s underwhelming combat has made me realize just how much of an achievement TobyFox’s Undertale and the still-in-progress Deltarune really are. In addition to having impeccable writing and captivating characters, the two games share a combat system that borrows heavily from EarthBound while adding an active layer to combat (namely, having to literally evade the enemies attacks by controlling an on-screen cursor) and even allowing players to either play traditionally or take the pacifist route. While not the perfect combat system, Undertale and Deltarune’s gameplay is a template example of taking a solid foundation (in this case, EarthBound’s combat) and adding several unique ideas to the mix to really expand on the initial idea and take it to the next level.
Getting back to EarthBound for a second, one mechanic that I absolutely loved, regardless of my feelings towards combat as a whole, is how the game deals with dying. While the game is largely pretty manageable, the occasional difficulty spike meant that I faced a fair number of deaths over the course of Ness’s journey. Whereas some RPGs brutally punish players with loss of progress, and others, conversely, give players a simple slap on the wrist and allow for an instant retry, EarthBound takes a middle-ground approach that is unique in both its execution and its relevance to the main story.
Ness’s relationship with his father is one that is left strangely vague for players. You never see him in person, and only communicate with him via telephone. Is he and Ness’s mother divorced? Is he away on a business trip? Who knows? But what’s fascinating about the relationship, regardless of what’s reality and what’s fiction, is that Ness’s father is cheering him on just as much as his mother. As a means to helping him along on the journey, the dad gradually deposits spending money into a bank account for Ness to make use of while on his journey. However, Ness must first withdraw money from the account in order to use it.
Here comes the twist. When out in the field, if Ness is KO’d, the player loses half of whatever money Ness is carrying on his person at the time. Everything still stored in the ATM, meanwhile, remains untouched. Interesting, no? While it never really elevated combat for me, this system for spending cash is something I wish more RPGs would implement moving forward; it rewards being strategic, while flirting with the idea of taking on some degree of risk (you never know when you’ll need money, but then again, you never know when you’ll fight a particularly tough enemy). Better yet, in the context of EarthBound, the idea that Ness’s father has his son’s back, if not physically, then at least monetarily, is a touching story beat — especially when the bond between Ness and the rest of his party seems superficial, at best.
Explorable towns are a staple of most RPG franchises. How’d you like EarthBound’s take on towns? Do you have a particular favorite, and if so, why?
Absolutely. Ultimately, I’ve enjoyed my time with EarthBound, and the towns are the number one factor. I love how, unlike other rival JRPGs, EarthBound doesn’t shy away from the banality of everyday life. Towns are regular places, with regular shops, regular denizens, and regular forms of transportation. Granted, EarthBound expounds on this idea, creating a bevy of supernatural problems for the people of Earth to face, from killer zombies to alien invasions. But, at its core, EarthBound is about the strength of a community, banding together to overcome any threat, no matter how odd or seemingly insurmountable.
As for my favorite, I have to go with Twoson. The music just strikes a personal chord for me, and having the town serve as the backdrop for Ness’s first real challenge — saving Paula from her imprisonment — made it especially emotional for me. Truly felt like Ness’s first step on his large, fantastic journey.
How’d you feel about the game’s length? Too long? Too short?
A tad too long, if you ask me — especially if you settle for either of the slower text speeds. I would have loved for Ness and co.’s walking speeds to have been a little higher (a run button would have been even better), but all things considered, EarthBound is hardly a “long” game when compared to many other contemporary JRPGs.
Thoughts on the final boss fight? If you didn’t know the “trick” beforehand, how long did it take you to figure it out?
I thought the Giygas fight was really well done. The idea that the big baddie of EarthBound is this entity that Ness can’t even begin to comprehend just makes it all the more sinister. At the same time, the ability for Paula to “pray” and enlist the aid of those back home and around the world makes overcoming Giygas seem all the more achievable.
And that’s ultimately the point, no? That what we can’t do alone, we surely can do if we bring everyone together? I hear and respect Sam’s opinion that “thoughts and prayers” are meaningless without action in today’s society (and he’s totally correct), but I think that EarthBound is surprisingly progressive, not to mention topical, in its ability to send a message about community and the importance of everyone working together in the face of adversity. Surely, our country could take a few cues from the actions of Ness and his pals.
Given EarthBound’s SNES roots, how do you feel the game stacks up to rival JRPGs on the platform? (Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, Super Mario RPG, etc.)
EarthBound is certainly deserving of making the shortlist of the most influential and important games on the system. Ultimately, I’d put games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI above it, if only because the combat and production values in both — at least to me — are clearly stronger. Having said that, EarthBound is still a phenomenal achievement, and a game that I certainly believe is worthy of praise alongside its legendary peers.
Remind our audience: For our playthrough preview article, what score did you give EarthBound in terms of what you were expecting out of the experience?
I gave EarthBound an excitement score of 9 back in June, citing its “atmosphere, music, and storytelling” as reasons why I would find the game enjoyable.
Having played the game in some capacity, either fully or partially, would you revise the score? If so, what would you give it now, in hindsight?
Despite my issues with EarthBound‘s combat and pacing, especially in the first half of the game, I’ll stick with the 9 that I gave the game back in June. While it didn’t go above and beyond what I had initially expected, the game still succeeded in its ability to sell its world and, ultimately, its charm. I just hope we’ll be fortunate enough to see EarthBound revisited by Nintendo — either in the form of a remake, a localization of Mother 3, or a brand-new title — sooner rather than later.
In summary, how would you describe EarthBound? Would you recommend Ness’ adventure to a friend or colleague?
Absolutely. Regardless of my quibbles with some of its smaller systems and story moments, EarthBound is an extremely unique experience that is worth checking out for anyone with a passing interest in RPGs (though be sure to come in with an open mind and plenty of patience). It may not be the greatest RPG to hit the SNES, but it offers a sense of place that I’d argue is unrivaled by most games of its time, and even many gaming experiences today.
And so our 25th anniversary celebration and Punished Playthrough of EarthBound comes to a close! Thank you for reading our thoughts. Agree with them? Awesome! Disagree? That’s cool, too!
Regardless, be sure to chime in with your own comments below. Any particular moments we forgot to mention above? Let us know!
