one of the most endearing games i've ever played, with beautiful art direction and such a genuine feel to everything, from the coming-of-age themes to the littlest of details scattered around the world. there's a great sense of adventure upheld by many unforgettable scenes and the surprises and gimmicks that you come across from quest to quest and level to level. the game also offers a pretty damn big cast of characters and almost all of them are very memorable, thanks to the witty dialogue and the great localization.

crazy psychedelic visuals and weird ass soundtrack (which is a major plus) too id just like to reinforce that

the key issue with earthbound, though, is that it's a very old jrpg, so the gameplay is quite rough around the edges and dated. many QoL issues (scarcity of save points, bad inventory management) and a pretty stiff, lackluster combat can make the game frustrating at times, but it's fair to say that literally everything else compensates for that (and goes beyond).