Earthbound : A Masterful and Deceptively Modern Classic
When you look at my account, you might think that it seems like my prolific gaming career means I’ve played almost all of the games most people consider “classic must play video games” and that couldn’t be further from the truth and that’s actually something I’ve been meaning to repair since I have massive gaps in my gaming culture that I never got the chance to fill and the Mother Series was one of those.
A week before finishing Earthbound I went through Mother 1 which I only did a short review on as despite the game being surprising in a few areas, I didn’t have much to say but don’t think it means I don’t respect the fuck out of Mother 1, it’s a janky mess of an early 80’s RPG in which the jank was cleverly integrated into a subtle but terribly effective narrative throughline which lead to yes a lot of frustration but also one of the best ludo-narrative experience on the NES alongside another long-time favorite game of mine : Dragon Quest III (which is the smartest JRPG on the planet and if you haven’t played it yet, what the fuck are you even doing with your life ?)
But now’s the time to talk about the real meat and potatoes as I enter the realm of cult-classic beloved RPG’s with Mother 2 aka Earthbound (and sorry if I bounce back between the 2 names during this review).
Now playing Earthbound in 2023 is kind of wild, I had some history with trying to get into the game, I always started it, played the first few hours up until the first sanctuary and then I always kinda just forgot to continue or push forward perhaps because my attention span is indeed terrible or because some things I was more interested in came up while I was trying to play it.
But what I meant mostly is that Earthbound is pretty much the precursor of an entire memetic genre of games, the so-called “Quirky Earthbound-Inspired Indie RPG with horror elements (optionally about depression)” which I’ve experienced and some of which became some of my all-time favorite games of all time, games like Undertale, Lisa or Yume Nikki which and others that I’ve also quite liked such as Off, To the Moon, Oneshot and others I found depressingly overhyped (might say it but it’s Omori, sorry).
So my experience with Earthbound was a bit odd because being the basis and the foundation of something that was expanded upon for years by other people meant that I didn’t know if I was going to be thoroughly enthralled by the experience.
And yeah ngl, the start of the game was about the same as the other time around, the start of Earthbound much like Mother 1 is a bit rough, just getting past Frank and his robot was a pain in the ass and I didn’t really have any incentive to continue the game as it was fairly basic from the outset but… the true brilliance of this game is that it hides its best content past those relatively basic and tedious first couple of hours.
Because as soon as you enter Twoson, shit start getting crazy, freaking hobos starts attacking you at the flea market, you have to stop a cult that’s a parody of the Ku Klux Klan but who wants to paint everything blue and it only get crazier and crazier from there.
One thing that’s actually pretty impressive with Earthbound is how much it still holds up in comparison to many of its modern clones, the humor of this game and the situation you find yourself feels like they don’t belong in a game from 1994, the game feels like it came out yesterday on Steam and people went crazy about it from its biting commentary on American culture to how bizarre and hypnotizing some of the setting and situation you find yourself in can be, Earthbound is a weird game but it’s a game with lots of charm and most of all a true sense of adventure as you go far and wide to fulfill the prophecy and defeat Giygas, I actually love how little we know about the guy until we meet him, he is an ever-present overwhelming force but he hides himself cowardly in his lair and you a simple little kid represent the biggest threat to his existence as he shits himself.
Heck even by the end of it, you still don’t know what Giygas is supposed to be, sadly I knew what Giygas looks like from years of exposure to meme about this game and cultural osmosis but I have no doubt that if I had met him an earlier age after going through the numerous wacky antics of the story, I would’ve deadass shat my pant and much like Ness, I would’ve probably called my mom crying because what is this legitimately, what is this entire endgame even it’s so fucked up !!!
The game has a very earnest almost candid like approach to RPG that feels completely different for its time period and the weird part is that it’s not just wacky for the sake of being wacky or wasting your time, your goal is set from the start and everything you do stems from that goal, heck the game even split up into multiple path like the original, while I was playing through this game I actually skipped straight from Melody IV to Melody VII without even noticing and without the game holding me back on my decision to do so.
It’s a game all about wonder and surprise, it’s a sincere piece of art that captures the heart of the small children that lives inside your head and it even managed to speak to you as an adult, some lines in this game actually hitted me deeply with how right they hit with my current circumstances and as someone who’s not really living his best life right now being far from being the children I used to be and craving a simpler time through simpler games with lower stakes, I think Earthbound came right into my life at the best possible time, no wonder I couldn’t get into it before, having the right mindset going into this game is essential to appreciate its beauty.
It’s avant-garde without being pretentious
It’s post-modern without being cynical
It’s childish and naive but without taking you for an idiot or insulting your intelligence
And even manage to be a somewhat decent RPG with competent and unique dungeon design, resource management and even some unique novelty in its main mechanics to not make it completely basic beyond the aesthetic of it all.
However I will say that inventory management is awful and the game has perhaps some of the most obnoxious implementation of "enemies on the map" that I've seen yet but it hardly ever matter, you get used to it after a while since the game is still thoroughly engaging at every turn.
Earthbound is a one of a kind game, it was one of a kind in 1994 and still today I find it at times more touching, more sincere and better executed than a lot of its clones who often come up as pretty tryhard. The game is funny as shit too like I didn’t expect to actually laugh out loud but this is amazing. What can I say except, just play it ! You might find yourself a new favorite
When you look at my account, you might think that it seems like my prolific gaming career means I’ve played almost all of the games most people consider “classic must play video games” and that couldn’t be further from the truth and that’s actually something I’ve been meaning to repair since I have massive gaps in my gaming culture that I never got the chance to fill and the Mother Series was one of those.
A week before finishing Earthbound I went through Mother 1 which I only did a short review on as despite the game being surprising in a few areas, I didn’t have much to say but don’t think it means I don’t respect the fuck out of Mother 1, it’s a janky mess of an early 80’s RPG in which the jank was cleverly integrated into a subtle but terribly effective narrative throughline which lead to yes a lot of frustration but also one of the best ludo-narrative experience on the NES alongside another long-time favorite game of mine : Dragon Quest III (which is the smartest JRPG on the planet and if you haven’t played it yet, what the fuck are you even doing with your life ?)
But now’s the time to talk about the real meat and potatoes as I enter the realm of cult-classic beloved RPG’s with Mother 2 aka Earthbound (and sorry if I bounce back between the 2 names during this review).
Now playing Earthbound in 2023 is kind of wild, I had some history with trying to get into the game, I always started it, played the first few hours up until the first sanctuary and then I always kinda just forgot to continue or push forward perhaps because my attention span is indeed terrible or because some things I was more interested in came up while I was trying to play it.
But what I meant mostly is that Earthbound is pretty much the precursor of an entire memetic genre of games, the so-called “Quirky Earthbound-Inspired Indie RPG with horror elements (optionally about depression)” which I’ve experienced and some of which became some of my all-time favorite games of all time, games like Undertale, Lisa or Yume Nikki which and others that I’ve also quite liked such as Off, To the Moon, Oneshot and others I found depressingly overhyped (might say it but it’s Omori, sorry).
So my experience with Earthbound was a bit odd because being the basis and the foundation of something that was expanded upon for years by other people meant that I didn’t know if I was going to be thoroughly enthralled by the experience.
And yeah ngl, the start of the game was about the same as the other time around, the start of Earthbound much like Mother 1 is a bit rough, just getting past Frank and his robot was a pain in the ass and I didn’t really have any incentive to continue the game as it was fairly basic from the outset but… the true brilliance of this game is that it hides its best content past those relatively basic and tedious first couple of hours.
Because as soon as you enter Twoson, shit start getting crazy, freaking hobos starts attacking you at the flea market, you have to stop a cult that’s a parody of the Ku Klux Klan but who wants to paint everything blue and it only get crazier and crazier from there.
One thing that’s actually pretty impressive with Earthbound is how much it still holds up in comparison to many of its modern clones, the humor of this game and the situation you find yourself feels like they don’t belong in a game from 1994, the game feels like it came out yesterday on Steam and people went crazy about it from its biting commentary on American culture to how bizarre and hypnotizing some of the setting and situation you find yourself in can be, Earthbound is a weird game but it’s a game with lots of charm and most of all a true sense of adventure as you go far and wide to fulfill the prophecy and defeat Giygas, I actually love how little we know about the guy until we meet him, he is an ever-present overwhelming force but he hides himself cowardly in his lair and you a simple little kid represent the biggest threat to his existence as he shits himself.
Heck even by the end of it, you still don’t know what Giygas is supposed to be, sadly I knew what Giygas looks like from years of exposure to meme about this game and cultural osmosis but I have no doubt that if I had met him an earlier age after going through the numerous wacky antics of the story, I would’ve deadass shat my pant and much like Ness, I would’ve probably called my mom crying because what is this legitimately, what is this entire endgame even it’s so fucked up !!!
The game has a very earnest almost candid like approach to RPG that feels completely different for its time period and the weird part is that it’s not just wacky for the sake of being wacky or wasting your time, your goal is set from the start and everything you do stems from that goal, heck the game even split up into multiple path like the original, while I was playing through this game I actually skipped straight from Melody IV to Melody VII without even noticing and without the game holding me back on my decision to do so.
It’s a game all about wonder and surprise, it’s a sincere piece of art that captures the heart of the small children that lives inside your head and it even managed to speak to you as an adult, some lines in this game actually hitted me deeply with how right they hit with my current circumstances and as someone who’s not really living his best life right now being far from being the children I used to be and craving a simpler time through simpler games with lower stakes, I think Earthbound came right into my life at the best possible time, no wonder I couldn’t get into it before, having the right mindset going into this game is essential to appreciate its beauty.
It’s avant-garde without being pretentious
It’s post-modern without being cynical
It’s childish and naive but without taking you for an idiot or insulting your intelligence
And even manage to be a somewhat decent RPG with competent and unique dungeon design, resource management and even some unique novelty in its main mechanics to not make it completely basic beyond the aesthetic of it all.
However I will say that inventory management is awful and the game has perhaps some of the most obnoxious implementation of "enemies on the map" that I've seen yet but it hardly ever matter, you get used to it after a while since the game is still thoroughly engaging at every turn.
Earthbound is a one of a kind game, it was one of a kind in 1994 and still today I find it at times more touching, more sincere and better executed than a lot of its clones who often come up as pretty tryhard. The game is funny as shit too like I didn’t expect to actually laugh out loud but this is amazing. What can I say except, just play it ! You might find yourself a new favorite