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Earthbound Review

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It’s time to review one of the most iconic Nintendo RPGs of all time. Everyone has heard of this title and for good reason. They really pushed the envelope on this game with the amount of crazy visuals and just having a generally weird world around the main characters. Games like Undertale would end up continuing in this same light. Without Earthbound you can argue that many games would not exist. It really has aged quite well.

The story starts with a meteor crashing in Ness’ home town Onett. He goes out to check it along with another boy named Porky. Porky ends up succumbing to the dark side and serving the dark lord Giygas while Ness is tasked with saving the world. He will need several allies including a genius, a martial artist, and a psychic expert. Can these kids really stop the end of the world though? Giygas is a being that exists across dimensions and all of time with seemingly unlimited amounts of power. That’s not an easy opponent to overcome but Ness won’t give up!

This is a game where you really need to cling to everything that you are told because it always ends up being a lot more important than you would have guessed. Sometimes you have to talk to a character multiple times and other times you have to go back to an old town to grab an item you may have missed. The game is quite vast and I’m sure I didn’t talk to a bunch of people/witness bonus content. The dialogue is all a lot of fun here. It has that absurd comedy type angle where crazy things are happening and people don’t have much of a reaction to it which is a type of comedy in itself.

The writing is quite excellent. I like how your father will call in from time to time to check on you and give you some money to get items with. It has a very “Are you winning son?” vibe to it and it’s great to have supportive parents here. Your Mom is always around to give you a fresh pizza and recover your HP as well. Your sister even contributes by giving you items and a place to store extra ones. These are little elements that just help make the world feel a lot more fleshed out.

There’s also a lot of room for fun theories about different characters and what’s going on. You could really make a whole franchise out of this which is why it’s a shame that Nintendo hasn’t kept up with making a bunch of Earthbound games. There is so much potential to them and I’m sure with modern graphics and everything they could really make this massive. This game took me close to 30 hours as it is. In general a nice advantage of RPGs is that the long story really lets you connect to the characters.

One of the playable characters doesn’t show up until you’re over 20 hours in for example which is really impressive. I had actually forgotten about him for a while even though in the intro you get to name all of the characters so in a way you know that they’re coming. It’s just a long wait and you’re busy doing a lot of other things in the meanwhile to really keep track. The final boss is super iconic of course and then you’ve got a lot of other creative enemies and even full concerts in game. Yes this is an ambitious title.

At times it can be easy to get lost or not know what to do next. Fortunately their are hint shacks around. The NPCs aren’t generally very helpful so otherwise you would have been in a pretty tough spot. Also some areas are very well hidden so even when you’re following a path, try to keep note of which path you didn’t check in case you have to use it later on. As you progress through the game you unlock some quality of life features like teleportation which is definitely worth the wait.

If I have any issues here, I would say one gameplay mechanic doesn’t age too well. This one uses the old Final Fantasy 2 type of mechanic where if your character dies they won’t come back to life even at an inn. You have to specifically go to the hospital to revive the character and that’s a lot of work since those are rarer to come up against. Again this is a quality of life feature that comes in later on once your character learns how to revive someone. That’s near the very end of the game though so it takes a while.

Also your storage is very small per character so you will run out a lot. This means you will have to constantly toss items out to make room for new ones or pay the storage fee to put in some extra back at home. I think they could have been more generous on that front. It’s only a mild annoyance to have to go in and toss stuff since you can only do this one at a time but still it’s something where a sequel can improve a bit.

The soundtrack is definitely excellent, there are a lot of really good tunes you will hear as you go through the adventure. The graphics are also really solid for its era. Like I mentioned earlier the game is very creative here both in the enemy designs and the effects. It gets a bit trippy with Giygas and the game is just so far ahead of its time that I’m sure the reactions to that boss must have been crazy.

In terms of replay value, there is a lot in terms of talking to people and such but there isn’t really a post game. Regardless the main campaign is long enough where that isn’t a problem. Additionally the game can be rather difficult at times so you will have to stop and train at different points. Don’t think that you will just be coasting by and the whole thing is a breeze because you will be in for quite the surprise!

Meanwhile the ending of the game is really intense. I don’t know if Mother 3 actually follows up on this or not but it’s really a high note. Yet another reason why Nintendo needs to license that game already. It would be so much fun to play through! The music gets rather tense and for a split second you’re wondering if the game is actually going to just keep on going. To date Nexamon is probably the only game I can think of that keeps on going after the long credits play and is the most realistic fake stop. I’d like to see more games do that and it only works in an RPG type game like this because you can have it trigger after 20-25 hours which would be realistic to end with.

Overall, Earthbound is a great game all the way through. It excels in every area and makes for a really fun experience. The gameplay is really smooth and the world is just so large. It feels like they crammed in a toooooon of content here especially relative to the average SNES game. It’s extremely impressive and the fact that it still holds up to this day is also something to be proud of. I would highly recommend jumping into this game as soon as possible. You will be having a lot of fun all the way through.

Overall 8/10

Mother 2: Giygas Strikes Back Review

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It’s time to look at an Earthbound manga from a while back. Of course this one didn’t come to America so it’s under the original name of Mother. The games always looked pretty fun and based on the story here I can definitely see why that’s the case. It’s a very surreal adventure that ultimately doesn’t give you all of the answers. A lot of the quest remains a mystery even by the end and that’s all right with me. It definitely allows for a sequel pretty nicely but can also wraps up well like this.

The adventure starts with Ness and his dog enjoying a normal day when Porky shows up. Porky’s friend has fallen in a ditch so he needs Ness to help. Ness is reluctant since Porky isn’t exactly known as a nice guy but Ness’ Mom tells him to go and help. Ness frees the friend but falls in during the process which of course leads Porky to run off and ditch the hero. Aliens possess Ness’ dog and tell the kid upon waking up that he must save the world and stop Giygas. Ness is ready to do so, but doesn’t have any powers so he wonders if he can really pull this off.

This manga definitely feels quite retro with how the art looks like something out of a Sunday newspaper comic. It’s pretty nice to see and you should be blasting through all of the pages with ease. It’s hard to place the faces at times but you’ll definitely recall them from various characters if you used to read a lot of comics back in the day. I definitely like the art style. It works well for what this story is going for as it gives you that Tintin adventure feel. The characters are all drawn well so you know them from the video games and the action scenes are handled well too. This all helps for adapting the stranger scenes in the series as well.

The cast may be on the small side but there are lots of supporting characters running around. Ness definitely makes for a pretty solid main character and it’s cool to see his trusty bat. He uses it to great effect when the villains show up. He’s definitely the leader of the team. He has that subplot about feeling like he isn’t strong enough to be on the team but gradually gets past that and even learns PK abilities of his own. He is definitely the best member of the heroes and a solid all around character. It’s part of why I want a new cinematic Super Smash Bros story someday. There’s a whole lot you could do with all of the characters actually talking and getting to use their experience from the main games.

Jeff isn’t really my kind of character but he’s a decent supporting one. He is just a little too timid the whole time. He does help out for fights though and even gets his own chapters so in a way he is the only other character who becomes a main character at one point. Then you have Paula who seems to have the highest amount of raw power. Of course the issue with PK abilities is that they completely drain you which leaves you vulnerable to attack from all sides. It’s a big drawback but considering how useful the PK abilities are it’s still useful to have them in the end. Otherwise the monsters would just be too overwhelming.

Ness’ Dad gets a lot of hype here. As I mentioned, he just seems to know things. It’s one of those eery elements of the series but for once it’s actually a good thing for the heroes. There’s no time to question how he knows these things and the knowledge does help the heroes out quite a bit as the series goes on. Without these tidbits they would really be in some serious trouble. Then you’ve got the federal agents who are on the case but don’t seem to know about the alien factor. It’s interesting though because the aliens are even public knowledge through books at the library. Maybe it’s one of those things were some people believe them and some do not.

As I said, this series has a lot of mysteries and is intentionally vague. It’s part of the charm. At the same time, there’s not a whole lot more to say about the series. It’s over very quick and is only around a volume long. There are a lot of mini adventures the heroes have on their way to the goal and they’re all pretty solid. The monster that forces you to puke just by being near it is certainly unique although I wouldn’t say that enemy landed in quite the same way as the other big obstacles the heroes had to face off against. One of the better obstacles was probably when the heroes had to break into a corrupt church and fight it out. It was one of the first big enemy forces that Ness had to deal with. There was also an interesting inn that felt like something out of the Twilight Zone. When you enter there’s no guarantee that you can leave. It’s all linked and takes you to different dimensions and things like that. Definitely not something you want to mess with.

Overall, At this rate Earthbound will never get a true remake over here but it would definitely be cool if it did. This would also be a fun volume to bring to America. It’s a complete story from beginning to ending that you can understand whether you’re a fan of the series or a newcomer. I haven’t read a manga with this kind of art style before either so that was nice and unique. Personally I thought it fit rather well with what the story was trying to tell. I’d say this is the definition of a solid manga. It hits all the right notes and while it may end very quickly, you still feel like you got to have a good amount of adventures.

Overall 7/10