I think for games like these I kinda have to drop the obnoxious game reviewer tone I've taken on for this account. Although, that's probably not going to be possible with Backloggd being the restricted medium that it can be haha. But holy shit dude it feels so nice to finally play through this game after circling around it for probably close to a decade now. This game feels like a recurring cameo in my life that finally becomes an important plotpoint. I've seen it from Smash, PeanutButterGamer, and even glimpses of it from my cousin playing it, to then wanting to make a ROM hack of this game when I had nothing but a Chromebook. The biggest culmination of it being so important to me before even playing it would be watching my friend play it when I first met her a few years ago and then her introducing me to my current partner around a year after that.

And I gotta say no other game has captured my specific desire to walk around in a real-feeling town quite like this. This is really weird for me to speak of as my first thought about this game but you must understand that games just don't do this for the sake of convenience. Especially after living in my college town, that feeling has increased tenfold. If this game had a run button, it would absolutely destroy that feeling.

I'm also glad that I played through Mother 1 before this so I could get adjusted to what kind of quirks older games like to throw at people. I wouldn't nearly have had as good of a time if it weren't the case. And honestly? Game wasn't that hard for me, I only died a few times and only the ending stretch was infuriating.

But when the game was infuriating, I felt like it was appropriate. You're coming up against the greatest evil of all time and it only makes sense it would have defenses that could easily kick your teeth in. It especially made sense against Giygas, in which it felt like my frustration and anger matched up with the emotional chaos of the battle. It led me to the unthinkable and made me get off call with my gf. Truly horrible and despicable behavior that Giygas made me do. Only by defending myself and continuing to pray did I hold my own against him, and in writing this I realize how fucking beautiful that is. Keeping yourself calm in your darkest moments can make all the difference sometimes. And if it's too hard, then never feel afraid to call on help from your friends.

The last thing I'll mention about this game is that it strangely reminded me of my grandmother who passed away yet again. Seeing Ness's Mom and Tracy and King huddle together to pray in a dark house reminded me exactly of the day when she died, and we just huddled together to cry. What the hell man, this game is so full of love that I would never see within the mainline game space today. Sure, those games still have amazing stories but it's a different kind of emotional. Earthbound's writing comes off less as a carefully constructed narrative put together by a whole team of talented writers, and instead something written by a lone dev with a few dollars to develop the game of their dreams.

This game has rightfully earned its spot that it has as seen by the tremendous influence in the indie sphere. This is one of those games that I can say has been more of a whole experience.

Mother 3 is going to destroy me, isn't it.