I played this over the course of a few months with my closest friend, who deeply loves this game. Beforehand, they spent a long time building up the quality of the story and characters to me in ways that I don't think the game could have ever quite stacked up to. And this isn't really any fault of my friend or the game. The way we view "stories" and "characters" is just different.

At the end of the day, I wouldn't have wanted to experience this game in any other way. Their love and appreciation for Earthbound still drove me through to the end and made me see value in a game that I might have bounced off of if I played it by myself. I love you, Courtney, and I hope you're having a good day.