Game of the Month #15 (April) - Earthbound

EarthBound (officially translated as Mother 2: Gyiyg Strikes Back!), also known as EarthBound: The War Against Giygas!, is a game that was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System on August 27, 1994 in Japan and on June 1, 1995 in North America. It was designed and directed by Shigesato Itoi, with music by Hiroshi Kanazu, Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka.

EarthBound chronicles the adventures of Ness, a 13-year-old boy who journeys around the world using his psychic powers to collect eight melodies in order to save the future from an alien of pure evil, intending to sentence all of reality to the horror of eternal darkness.

Despite being successful in Japan, the North American version was released to a poor commercial response. Years later, the game is now lauded by gamers worldwide for its humorous depictions of American culture and parody of the RPG video game genre, and has since become a cult classic.

This month will mark my fourth attempt to play the game. The previous three times (one on a PC emulator, the others on a PSP emulator) I have, for various reasons, moved on to other games without ever leaving Ness' village.

But hey, fourth time lucky, right?

Just keep working your way to the right. There's some twists and turns, but if you keep going, you'll eventually reach Peaceful Happy Valley or whatever its called.

I beat Earthbound last year for the first time, after hearing so much hoopla over it, with it being considered to be one of the best JRPG's, and it was quite the let down for me, and it may be because it aged poorly, but I also thought the story was nothing to write home about, and the characters were forgettable, and I just didn't care about anything going on within the game. Which is quite the shame, because I went into the game wanting to love, and as I went deeper and deeper into the game, that thought process quickly changed, and I simply just wanted the game to end so I could move on from it. Earthbound came out after Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6 which are in the JRPG Pantheon (which by the way are still fantastic playthroughs to this day), and this game doesn't even come close in terms of quality when compared to the two.

Sure, the game has an unusual setting when compared to most JRPG's an the music was decent, but that's really it all has going for it. With that being said, it is probably the most overrated game that I have played and I believe I gave it a 5/10

I beat Earthbound last year for the first time, after hearing so much hoopla over it, with it being considered to be one of the best JRPG's, and it was quite the let down for me, and it may be because it aged poorly, but I also thought the story was nothing to write home about, and the characters were forgettable, and I just didn't care about anything going on within the game. Which is quite the shame, because I went into the game wanting to love, and as I went deeper and deeper into the game, that thought process quickly changed, and I simply just wanted the game to end so I could move on from it. Earthbound came out after Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6 which are in the JRPG Pantheon (which by the way are still fantastic playthroughs to this day), and this game doesn't even come close in terms of quality when compared to the two.

Sure, the game has an unusual setting when compared to most JRPG's an the music was decent, but that's really it all has going for it. With that being said, it is probably the most overrated game that I have played and I believe I gave it a 5/10

Whoa! I'm not gonna start a flame war becuase that's just the worst thing anyone can do on the internet but I am gonna have to say that it's really interesting to see how different someone's view of a game can be.

Not only is this game a cult classic but your view is almost opposite to mine in every single way. Aged Poorly? I didn't even play this game till a few years ago and honestly if it had come out now I would consider it a worthy buy, the game has so many things I love. I don't even understand how someone chould consider it a poorly aged game when I think it still holds up amazingly!

The story is I'll admit not the best part of the game for me but I still think it's amazing. This boy grows up and leaves home, along the way he fights the most absurd and unsettling fights in any JRPG I've ever seen. The all too obvious nod to the KKK, walking noose knots all within dungeons that have some really eerie music. I think the story is great becuase Ness and his friends find themselves against some really dark and potentionally traumatic enemies but continue to fight through all these thought situations and the boy grows up, he sees the world for what it is, the bad and the good, the seven deadly sins on full display and there childhoods end since so much is expected of them and they have to save the entire world. But as they try to they discover many reasons why the world isn't worth saving, they see the horrible and yet they save it, they risk there own lives for all these selfish and foolish people. They leave there childhood and there innocence behind as they learn more evil then most adults and yet still see it in there heart to do the most brave and selfless at of all.

Forgettable charatures... Please tell me your joking! Ness may not talk but he has the though box to show what his thinking, Paula may be bland at the start but she ends up being super important to ness and everyone and becomes one of the main reasons why the world is saved. And don't even get me started on Jeff, you can hate the others but don't go hating on Jeff becuase Jeff is amazing. You see him in his dorm as he interacts with the people around him and you get some delevopment out of him for it. He then selflessly goes out to help these people he has never met out of the kindness of his heart and when he even gets a chance to spend some time with the father he barely ever sees he skips it in order to go help his unknown friends. His farther is also super important to the story being another main reason why these kids are able to save the world with his amazing machines. Plus the way Jeff and his father interact is suprsingly how I think an away ward farther and son who never talk whould interact, no phoney happy reunion BS that most stories should try to pull off. And even minor charters and just simply NPCs have funny and interesting dialog, the NPCs arnt just useless beings they have personalities even if they don't have giving names. Like the dog in Onett who is possessed by the programmer or the elevator lady in fourside who always tells you to stop looking at her hips, these small tidbits that give them personality are leadge above what most games did back then and it's even more then most games do now.

While I think your insane on the other points this one is a bit more on an opnion and this is what I find interesting, which is that you never felt the need to keep going and to push forward towards the end. Earthbound is one of few games that makes me want to keep playing and I don't get board of it even when I play for multiple hours on end day after day after day. The only other games that do that for me are the Pikmin games and ace attorney games, or just any RPG really which I guess makes this fit that area. But this is even more then that I never tire of this and I find myself wanting to sneak in some time to play whenever I can. My last class at uni I spent half of it playing this instead of doing my work simply becuase I got it out for a fast break and then I chouldnt stop. I play it on the train and when I should be sleeping, it pulls me in and I never want to leave. I want to continue exploring this world of whimsy and wonder and I ever tire of it, I just want to be on this adventure forever.

Also your wrong, yes final fantasy V came out before earthbound but earthbound was released in Japan 1994 while chrono trigger came out 1995 so I don't know why you think that it came before earthbound but your wrong on that point. So if that was part of your reasoning then it's now only half as right as you thought. First of all I think it absolutely surpasses final fantasy V in almost every area. Yes FFV is a great game but it's nothing close to earthbound in my eyes and I'm not trying to start a flame war I'm just trying to explain to you why I love the game so much and try to make you understand why I find your point of view baffling. And since chrono trigger came later I'm not even going to bother comparing them but earthbound and chrono trigger I would say share a pretty even ground in my eyes with earthbound being better, while chrono trigger does surpass it in some areas overall I feel earthbound is the better package.

The music was decent... DECENT! I find it to be one of the best videogame tracks to ever come out of any game ever! I know now I just sound like I'm yelling and not really giving evadince but where do I begin, pick out any song from the earthbound soundtrack and I can explain why I love it and why I think it's great. The music always sets the mood perfectly, the dungeon theme is super eerie and it actully makes me feel uneasy and uncomfortable, while other themes like Onett make me feel happy and upbeat and ready to start an adventure while some areas are completly silent to really let the mood be decided by the player and this interpretation is great becuase the mind is amazing and will usually make the situation more scary or sinister then it really is by not having sound cues that really sets the mood even better then if there was some, the soundtrack is perfectly matched to the game and even now I consider it the best videogame track to ever be created with xenoblade chronicles being a very close second.

Most overrated game of all time you say... I got to say, I really don't understand how you got to that conclusion. Don't flame war me becuase that's not the point of this post. Just read it and try to understand why I love it and then try to see if you can understand how I'm baffled and then don't refute my points but simply explain your own so I can try and understand why it is you feel the way you do.