Earthbound holds a special place in my heart. It’s just one of those games that holds special significance for personal reasons. But I will try to refrain from letting nostalgia get in the way as I write my analysis of this fantastic RPG. Earthbound was technically the first RPG I had ever played. I rented it from Blockbuster many years ago. Sadly, because I rented it, I obviously didn’t get the players guide to go along with it. I wish I had, because then I might have understood just what the heck this game was supposed to be. I had never played an RPG before (at age 8, my gaming experience was pretty limited to what my parents bought for me, what my friend had, and what I occasionally rented). I didn’t understand the mechanics. The concept of turn based combat and encounters were completely foreign to me at the time. And, if memory served, I had selected some other renter’s previous save file, so I didn’t even start the game fresh (again, I was just an ignorant kid). Needless to say, I was unimpressed, and didn’t play the game much in that 3 day window that I had it. It wouldn’t be until many years (and many dollars) later that I would seek out an old copy of Earthbound on eBay and really discover just how great this game was.
On it’s most basic, surface level, Earthbound doesn’t appear any different from any other RPG of that time, but once you get past that most superficial layer, you will find that Earthbound is such a wonderfully unique RPG. And while there are plenty of imitators out there nowadays, for it’s time, it was on a level all it’s own. If I had to define the game in one word, it would be “quirky.”
In the game, you control Ness (which is SNES mixed around), a young boy who lives in the suburbs of Onette (a fictional, yet distinctly American-style town). After a meteorite crashes near his house, Ness meets a warrior that has traveled through time to deliver a message to Ness, “the chosen one.” It’s revealed that Ness, along with three other children are the only ones capable of saving the world from an evil alien being known as “Giygas.” Of course, this time traveling warrior takes on the shape of a tiny flying bee, and is called Buzz Buzz. Sadly Buzz Buzz dies shortly after meeting him, due to a neighbor swatting him with a newspaper. And that right there is what sets the tone of Earthbound. It never takes itself too seriously. And it just gets more whimsical from there on. Over the course of the game you will encounter cults obsessed with the color blue, living piles of vomit, teleporting monkeys, indescribable creatures that speak with their own special font (Mr. Saturn), a band that’s constantly getting in debt, ancient mystics, talking rocks, giant dinosaurs, new age retro hippies, a dungeon builder that becomes a literal dungeon himself, and so much more.
As I said earlier, on the surface, Earthbound seems pretty similar to many other RPG’s. It has basic turn based combat, in which you can do a variety of things like attack, defend, use an item, use a special power (which is called PSI, for psychic abilities, as opposed to the trope of magic or mana), or run away. After selecting your choice, combat plays out in turn order (you attack, one of the enemies attacks, your ally attacks, etc.). It’s pretty basic. But there are a few unique additions to this basic formula.
The first unique addition to combat has to be the way health is handled in combat. In a basic RPG, if you’re hit by an enemy, you’re told how much damage is done and it is instantly reflected in your health meter (or however health is displayed). In Earthbound, your health is displayed on a rolling counter. So, if you are hit for X amount of damage, the text will say so, and your health counter will start to roll backwards X amount. But here’s where the significance comes into play. If you are hit with enough damage to kill you, you still have a chance at survival. If you’re fast enough on the next turn to heal yourself, before the counter rolls to zero, then it will stop rolling backwards, and instead roll forwards, preventing your untimely demise. Alternatively, if you’re able to defeat your opponent before the counter rolls to zero, it will stop rolling back, and just freeze at whatever number of health it was at at the time of the enemy’s defeat. This mechanic leads to plenty of tactical advantages, if you’re quick. Unfortunately, how quick you are is often determined by the pace of the text being displayed. And, as this is an older game, the text is sometimes not fast enough (even when set to it’s fastest setting). So, while this iteration on something as basic as a health meter is certainly something special, it’s just a little flawed by the speed of the game itself.
Another addition to combat is that almost all of your allies have a unique move that only they can do. Paula (a blond girl with powerful PSI abilities) can “Pray” which is almost never a good idea, if you ask me. This ability can cause any number of random things to occur. It can heal your party a small amount, but it can also cause a random affliction on the whole party. It’s a complete gamble and almost never worth it. One oddity about this ability is the fact that it is required to use Pray multiple times in the fight against the final boss. I always found that odd. Although the main player is Ness, it is Paula that you absolutely need to keep alive in the final fight, otherwise you cannot win.
Jeff (a blond boy with glasses, he cannot use PSI, but is capable of using unique tech items in combat, such as the bottle rocket or heavy bazooka) has the “Spy” ability. Using this you can get the stats of any of your enemies. It also has a chance of stealing an item being held by the enemy you’re spying on. This is useful to stat obsessed players, but I’ve found that it’s not really a crucial ability, and I, more often than not, prefer to use Jeff’s turn offensively.
And finally Poo, yes, that’s really his name (a prince from the fictional “far east” country of Dalaam, another powerful PSI user), can use the ability of “Mirror.” This allows him to become an enemy and use its abilities, although it only works on certain enemies. While this might have sounded neat in the design meetings, this ability is virtually useless.
So, overall, all these unique abilities, intended to shake combat up, are pretty useless overall, and not worth the player’s time. Luckily, basic combat works just fine. Aside from the rolling counters, though, there’s nothing too particularly great about the combat in Earthbound. It’s not bad, it’s just not the best thing ever. In fact, it seems a little dated (even for it’s time). All combat is pretty static. you’re shown an image of the enemy, and your party’s health and PSI points are displayed at the bottom of the screen (you never actually see your party in combat). And there’s a text box above, explaining all the action. I don’t mind this old school approach (although I’m sure some would take issue with all the reading required) but a part of me wishes I could have seen some of the action in a more animated state. There are plenty of things that occur in combat that I would have loved to see as opposed to just read about. For instance, there is one fight in which the Runaway Five (the band that’s always getting into debt) comes to your rescue, breaking into the room, and powering off the killer robot attacking you. I would have loved to see that happen, as opposed to just reading a text box describing it happen.
I will say this, though, I love the way combat is initiated. All encounters with enemies occur by the player approaching the enemy, or vice versa. There are no random encounters. And the number of enemies you will be fighting is never a surprise, because they are all displayed on the open world screen before you initiate combat. This is a welcome style of encounters in RPG’s, for me. I hate RPG’s where I never know when the next fight is coming. There are times when I just want to avoid combat. I can’t do that with random encounters. I can at least attempt it in games like Earthbound. Avoidance doesn’t always work of course. Enemies will often give chase if you enter their line of sight. However, if you are at a high enough level, low level enemies will flee at the sight of you, avoiding a fight at all costs.
How an enemy is approached also plays a role in all of this. If you are able to sneak up behind an enemy, you will get a free round of attacks before the enemy can react. The opposite is also true, if an enemy approaches you from the back, they will get a free round. Using this to your advantage is crucial in the game, if you want to grind for XP. Personally, I’ve found grinding a necessity. This isn’t an easy game, if you aren’t properly leveled. So I’ve found in my playthroughs that I grind early and grind often. Which leads me to another gripe I have about this game.
As I’ve said before, your party is comprised of four kids. You get these kids in different parts of the game. And each kid starts out at level 1. So, while Ness and Paula might be level 25, Jeff will just be level one when you get him. This makes it almost required to grind XP every time you get a new party member. As if that wasn’t bad enough, there are times when party members will be removed from your party for narrative purposes. Paula gets kidnapped, and Poo is taken away so he can learn a special move. Which means that they are robbed of any XP you get without them. This bugs me to no end. Earthbound breaks a lot of RPG conventions in its narrative, but taking away party members for the sake of narrative is crossing a line, especially for a game that requires as much leveling as this one does.
Another poor aspect of the game is its inventory system. Old games seem to struggle when it comes to inventory. There’s just never enough space. But in Earthbound, that issue is compounded by a few glaring flaws. There are a few items that seem like you need to have with you at all times. The map is one, it’s good to have if you want to know how to get around a city (sadly it doesn’t work outside of cities, so it seems kind of useless because of that). Another item I always have is the ATM Card. When you defeat enemies, you get money sent to your account. You don’t get the money directly. You need to access an ATM to withdraw (or deposit) money. And you can’t access the ATM without your ATM card. This is a needlessly complicated system just to get money. And I feel it could have easily been streamlined by ditching the card nonsense. Another item you need at all times is the receiver phone. You need this at all times, in the rare instances where a friend will call you, informing you that he’s just invented something that will solve the current puzzle your facing at that moment. Again, an annoying item that shouldn’t have to take up space in my limited inventory. There are a few other examples of this kind of crap, but it’s all relatively the same. Items that serve specific purposes, but none of which should take up inventory space.
The other glaring issue I have with inventory space is that all armor and weapons take up space too, even when equipped. So that’s four more slots gone. It is apparent that the developers saw the issue with inventory, however, as they included a special service called the “Escargo Express.” By calling Ness’s sister (who works there) you can have a delivery man come by and pick up any important item that you want stored away, and when you want it back, just call them again to have it delivered to you. Unfortunately, even though you technically have the receiver phone, you cant make calls with it, so if you need that important item, you had better hope there’s a telephone nearby.
All that said, Earthbound is such a wonderful treasure of a game. It is dated in certain ways. But it also holds up remarkably well. It has its flaws. And it has its strengths. It’s goofy, it’s quirky, it’s fun. It has an indescribable quality that I cannot properly express here. It’s just one of those games.
