The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is home to so many amazing, memorable, landmark RPG titles—like Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, and Super Mario RPG. Out of all of the monumental games that have come from that console, Earthbound stands out to me for so many reasons and it constantly reels me back in for yearly playthroughs.
Earthbound can be described using so many words you wouldn't use to describe other RPGs. You'll see it frequently described as "quirky", which is so true that it hurts. Earthbound does a lot of unique, unconventional things that you did not see in other RPGs of the time. Let's take a gander at what exactly I mean.
Setting and Environments
In a time when a vast majority of RPGs were set in medieval time periods or used a fantasy setting with swords, wizards, and dragons, Earthbound set itself apart by being set in modern times—19XX according to the game's opening scene. The game uses this modern setting in so many fun and creative ways.
Ways such as:
Instead of navigating medieval villages or kingdoms, you'll explore modern cities and country sides.
Instead of buying gear at a blacksmith or sleeping at inns, you'll buy gear at drug stores and sleep in a hotel or eat at a fast food restaurant.
Instead of fighting using a sword and a shield, you'll use a baseball bat or a yo-yo.
Instead of fighting goblins, dwarves, or dragons, you'll fight cultists, piles of puke, or sentient paintings.
Instead of the currency being gold coins or jewels, you'll use US dollars that you'll need to withdraw from an ATM.
There's way more to it than just those examples, but you get it.
The artists behind the game's visuals also backed the setting up with making sure that everything is as colorful and as detailed as possible. Almost every building in every town looks so unique, and stores have adorable little signs to let you know what they are. Instead of using a top-down, isometric, or grid-based view, Earthbound uses a visual style called "oblique projection". This visual style focuses more on the front of each object on screen, whereas an isometric view focuses more on the sides.
The game spans across 3 distinct countries, each based on real life locations:
Eagleland: Based on the United States, with lots of skyscrapers, taxi cabs, and arcades.
Foggyland: Based on the United Kingdom, with some wintery landscapes and a Stonehenge parody.
Chommo: Based on the Middle East, with deserts and pyramids.
While 3 countries may not seem like a lot, they're actually very huge. In fact, the world in Earthbound is GIGANTIC. Each country contains towns that are connected by long roads or pathways that require you to travel by bus, ship, or other vehicles. The amount of variety in each country's towns is enough to make you want to explore every single inch and see what each NPC has to say.
Combat
First of all: NO RANDOM ENCOUNTERS. You read that right. Earthbound does not have random encounters. Instead, you'll see enemies roaming around, and if you make contact with one, you'll initiate a battle. If you approach an enemy from behind, you'll gain a free round of attacks before the enemy can even make a move. The same thing goes for the enemies. Depending on how much higher your level is compared to the enemy, you might even skip combat entirely.
The combat is turn-based, from a first-person view. While the enemy models don't move during combat, you'll instead be treated to the wiggly kaleidoscope-esque background images that feel different in almost every single battle. There's all sorts of different colors, shapes, and movements and, along with the PSI power animations, feel so unlike anything else on the SNES. Another unique mechanic that comes in very handy is the rolling HP counters. Each time a party member takes damage in combat, their HP gauge will gradually roll downward, similar to an odometer, giving you a chance to heal before a character is knocked-out.
Instead of using spells or magic, Earthbound uses psychic abilities called "PSI". With the exception of Jeff, each character has a different set of PSI powers at their disposal, and each power has a different animation that plays on-screen upon use. You have PSI Fire (deals fire damage to a row of enemies), Lifeup (heals an ally), and PSI Shield (can absorb a single PSI ability) just to name a few.
Each of your party members excels in different areas, adding a lot more strategy to combat.
Ness is much tankier than the other characters and deals the most melee damage.
Paula is your glass cannon—dealing massive damage with PSI attacks and having low defense and melee damage.
Jeff cannot use PSI attacks at all. He instead relies on using gadgets in combat, and often ends up doing far more damage than any other party character and doesn't rely on PP whatsoever.
Poo is mostly a mix of Ness and Paula, being very balanced in terms of stats and availability of PSI powers. He pivot between offense or support at any point.
Aside from combat, Earthbound has a lot of other cool gameplay mechanics that set it apart. Payphones are your save points, you'll visit a hospital to revive fallen party members, and if your entire party falls in combat, you'll be sent back to your previous save point, but with half of the money that you had. Payphones can also be used to order a multi-use, HP-recovering pizza, call your mom to relieve homesickness, and even to deposit unused items into a bank.
Earthbound also cleverly renamed status ailments to match the modern setting in some great ways. Here's some examples:
Crying: lowers accuracy of physical attacks.
Colds: causes the character to sneeze at the beginning of their turn and loses HP.
Feeling Strange: causes the character to act on their own, sometimes attacking allies or attacking a different enemy.
Diamondized: unable to act entirely.
Soundtrack
Earthbound has A LOT of tracks and each one is such a delight. They really put everything they had into this soundtrack and pushed the system's audio to its limits. The game switches the themes up a lot depending on the type of enemies you face in combat, the environments, the type of store you're in, and so much more.
A lot of tracks make great use of the bass and percussion made possible by the SNES's audio chip.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Story
WARNING: Possible spoilers ahead
I wanted to save the best for last—the story. While Earthbound is mostly known for being goofy and funny, there are moments in the game that feel very serious and kind of unsettling. While the story isn't as mind-blowing as other RPGs on SNES, it's totally worth experiencing. Read at your own risk!
In the year 19XX, Ness is awoken by a loud CRASH near his home. Accompanied by his neighbor, Pokey, he goes to check it out. There they meet Buzz Buzz—an insect from 10 years in the future who informs Ness of Giygas' evil deeds and sends him on a quest to gather the Eight Melodies, find the other three chosen kids, and defeat Giygas. Due to the powerful evil energy that's exuded by Giygas, many animals, people, and even objects are turned violent and aggressive. Pokey (Ness' neighbor from the beginning of the game who is heavily influenced by Giygas' evil energy) will occasionally confront the party and try his best to stop them from reaching Giygas.
Eventually it's discovered that Giygas is entirely too powerful in present day, and that Ness and company are no match for him. In order to destroy Giygas and prevent him from becoming as powerful as he is now, the party decides to use a device called "The Phase Distorter" to travel back in time and defeat a much less powerful version of Giygas. To make sure their bodies aren't destroyed in the time travel process, the party transfers their souls into robots.
The party, in their robot forms in the past, travel to where Giygas is located—inside of a machine that resembles an intestinal tract, or some kind of reproductive tract—and are again confronted by Pokey. This time around, Pokey seems to be fully consumed by the evil energy of Giygas. His skin is pale, his hair is gray, and he's somehow controlling an alien machine that resembles a spider. Upon defeat, Pokey releases Giygas from the machine that he's currently being held in. Giygas, now an incomprehensible entity of pure malice and evil, attacks the Chosen Four, occasionally crying out in pain and telling the party that he regrets his actions to a degree, is still far too powerful and too much for the Chosen Four to handle.
Realizing that Giygas' one true weakness is human emotion, Paula uses her Pray ability to reach out to all of the inhabitants of the world for help. Each prayer does massive damage to Giygas, and after reaching out to the player, Giygas is annihilated, erasing his future evil reign on Earth.
Overall Thoughts
The only negative that I can muster for this game is the occasional difficulty spike with bosses. Some get lucky hits and wipe your party, others inflict your entire team with a status ailment and you're pretty much cooked. You may have to grind occasionally, but the game gives good amounts of experience points with each battle, so you won't have to grind for that long. But if you're like me and you've played the game over and over, so you know what's coming and you're prepared for those bosses, it's no sweat at all.
Earthbound is my favorite game on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and my overall second favorite game of all time. If you're looking for a unique RPG that you'll remember for years to come, you'll want to play Earthbound. Great visuals, great gameplay, great audio, and a great story to really back it all up.
10 Mr. Saturns out of 10.
