Nearly twenty years ago, I was one of the unlucky few who managed to miss out on what was certainly one of the strangest and most progressive role-playing games of its time. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was preoccupied with the slew of other fantastic titles that had released in the same window, but whatever the cause, that status carried with me until today: I went through the first thirty years of my life without ever having played EarthBound.
So, needless to say, when word came that we had received a reviewable copy of the title—now (by the work of unknown deities) available for download on the Nintendo Wii U shop—I jumped at the opportunity. Besides, as a self-proclaimed Nintendo fanboy of so many years, it’s almost unacceptable that I would have missed out on an entire franchise from the company—much less one which is as highly regarded by its fanbase as this. I hope, then, that this fresh take on the game helps someone who’s on the fence and in my position to make a decision.
EarthBound is weird, yet familiar
EarthBound is… weird. It’s a game that thrives in the unexpected, fusing a sense of carefree childhood mischief with apocalyptic and eerie overtones. Humor is a critical ingredient in its formula, and its relentless self-awareness breaks the fourth wall on regular occasions to help remind the player that this is only half-serious. It’s also extremely well-localized—better than almost any other game of its time, in fact, and laced with pop culture references and clever euphemisms that rarely made it into Japanese-developed titles of its time.
At a basic level, EarthBound’s plot points are not completely unique: Kids get into trouble; kids are unwittingly informed of upcoming apocalypse; kids rise above all odds to become saviors of the universe. The most obvious comparison is, of course, the timeless (heh) classic Chrono Trigger, which many people still consider to be the greatest RPG ever created. But the reason for the success of this approach isn’t entirely chance: such circumstances speak to kids, who are able to identify with the characters and see themselves walking in their shoes. These are just ordinary kids with ordinary lives—they’ve got siblings, parents, and pets—and yet in just the blink of an eye they have become heroes.
More specifically, the story goes like this: the young boy Ness awakens one night to a strange noise outside his bedroom window. Upon further investigation, it’s supposedly a meteorite which crashed into the ground atop a nearby hill. Onett’s authorities—who are apparently world-renowned for their penchant for blockades and closed roads—somehow fail to prevent Ness’s return trip to the hill to see the aftermath for himself. A strange bee named Buzz Buzz confronts Ness and his friends to inform them of the coming apocalypse, as well as the fact that he believes Ness to be one of the “chosen ones” to prevent mankind’s demise. He advises Ness that he must begin working to defeat the cause of the apocalypse—a terrible alien named Giygas—immediately, as soon he will become too powerful to confront.
And so it is that Ness sets off on his journey to defeat the all-powerful Giygas and save the world, with the help of three other friends whom he has never met.
EarthBound is imaginative
The best thing of all about EarthBound is its imagination. Thanks to its unique attitude, it isn’t constrained by the logic of the average RPG. In fact, it frequently mocks that logic via characters jokingly referencing aspects of the gameplay or controller and through such avenues as the names of the locales (each of the first four towns are numbered—Onett, Twoson, Threed, and Fourside—while the last few areas are intentionally diverse, two of which are simply named Winter and Summer after their respective climates).
Instead, EarthBound finds ways to surprise the player. The story is every bit as unexpected as the changes in setting and character development, and the writers clearly had fun doing their jobs. Even the weapons used (Yo-yos, baseball bats, and frying pans), the variety of enemies (zombies, living trash cans, the Annoying Old Party Man who “grumbles about today’s youth” as a method of attack), and the items you receive (the “Pencil Eraser” which erases huge pencils blocking the path, and the “Machine that opens doors especially when you have a slightly bad key” which does exactly what it says) are intentionally ridiculous.
All of this is leveraged to keep the player on his toes throughout what is already a pretty harrowing ride, shifting between from happy-go-lucky to dark and foreboding as unapologetically as the Runaway Five’s bluesy tunes shift between major to minor chords. It is a flavor of game that was exceedingly rare in its time, and which still feels fresh even today, two decades later.
EarthBound is progressive
Something we really haven’t covered yet is gameplay—isn’t that interesting? Apart from the obvious (aforementioned) strides the game made in terms of localization and humor, EarthBound was every bit as prescient of future RPG evolutions as any other genre blockbuster of its time (again, Chrono Trigger comes to mind). Random battles are not a part of the formula, with the player instead able to spot (and even avoid) enemies before battles ensue. As the characters gain levels and become stronger, they even eventually find enemies fleeing them, at which point battles are skipped entirely should the player choose to pursue. Ness’s party or their enemies are also granted an extra turn depending on whether either is able to sneak up on their enemies from behind and invoke battle.
The battle sequences themselves are a lot more traditional, with menu-based attacks and PP-fueled special techniques leading the way, followed by the usual Items and Escape options. However, there are some oddities here as well. The most notable are a rolling HP meter (which counts down rapidly toward zero as the player is damaged, giving you a chance to quickly finish the battle or heal if you act immediately and avoid death) and the fact that death does not erase your progress. Instead, when all party members are defeated, you can simply opt to continue from the most recent save point (incidentally, these are telephones, where you call your dad to record your progress) with half of the money you were carrying lost.
Money, by the way, is obtained after winning battles, though not directly—Ness’s dad deposits it into his bank account, after which Ness can withdraw it from ATMs scattered around the world. This money is used for the usual stuff: buying supplies at the drugstore, bakery, or elsewhere, as well as staying at Hotels and reviving and curing unconscious or sick characters at Hospitals.
If there is any modern criticism of the game, it’s that the pacing is a bit of an afterthought, often reliant upon your ability to stumble upon the correct person in the correct place and frequently dependent upon sequential interactions to trigger necessary events. Fortunately, for those cryptic moments, you can always pay a little coin to the in-game hint-giver (who resides in every town), or spend a few minutes on the good old internet and save yourself the digital cash.
There’s no world map to speak of, by the way, which is another concept to which most RPGs were wedded at the time. Instead, towns, dungeons, and paths between blend together much like Pokémon or other classic RPG formulas with a modern foothold. Fortunately, you’ll be enjoying one of the most compelling and unique game soundtracks of the time, featuring a speckled and diverse assortment of both infectious melodies and peculiar ambience.
EarthBound is great
Most importantly, this combination of weirdness, imagination, and progressiveness leads to something else entirely: it’s what makes EarthBound great. It isn’t immediately apparent, but the game has a hidden power to strike you if you stick with it. As dedicated gamers, many of us can identify with its breed of bizarre, self-aware humor and its player-projected premise. By the same token, it’s amazingly different, even today—and with a style of gameplay which doesn’t feel as dated as it does merely appropriate. In other words, it holds up surprisingly well.
And, like the very best of games, it continues getting crazier and better right up until the final moments. If—like me—you’ve never experienced it before now, it’s sure to keep you guessing until the credits roll… but most significantly, you will be doing so with a smile on your face.
