When I think of games with fantastic stories and scenery and characters with just the most tedious possible gameplay, I think of Earthbound.

Actually playing it feels like work with item management, cumbersome turn based combat without being strategically in depth, and some aimless wandering of the game's world.

The charm is so abundant, so persistent, and so off-beat it carries it so much higher to the point where it is a part of the pop culture conscience of gamers.

A great example of how to build a wonderful, unexpected world in a video game, and an example of how to not set up turn based combat in a video game.