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Earthbound/Mother 2; The Battle Against Giygas!
Topic Started: Aug 12 2008, 09:11 PM (354 Views)
Pixel
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Desperate to escape becoming a hikikomori.
Pixel used PSI Topic!

[I really hope I wouldn't have to say "This following review is all in my opinion", but there ya go. I said it.]

Earthbound. The game that, if you went up to half of today's Nintendo fanboys and said the word, they'd be like "OH LOL, I KNOW THAT GAME, THAT'S THE NESS GAME DURR HURR," and they think they know Ness because they've played Smash Bros. Oooooh, you're an expert now! *sigh*

In any case, my pet peeve of Smash players who use Ness/Lucas but haven't actually played a Mother game has been born because I myself have played Earthbound.

And let me tell you, the Mother series is one of the best Nintendo franchises in existence. I can say that with full confidence even though I've only played EB because the gameplay (which is more or less the same in all 3) alone is better than most Nintendo franchises (specifically Nintendo RPGs like Pokémon, Fire Emblem, Zelda.) With that said, onto an organized review!

Story: In order to end the review on a high note, I'm going to start off with the game's negative: the story. With everything that's good about this game, the story is probably the weakest part. Now, that's not to say the story is bad in comparison to other Nintendo franchises, because Nintendo pretty much has a motif of cheap, cliché stories with no depth. Earthbound's pretty similar. In fact, EB's story is so devoid of interesting turns or huge twists, that there's no way I can even reveal spoilers. That's because there isn't much to "spoil." There's nothing about the story you could know beforehand that would be unpredictable or ruin the game for you. Besides, the Smash Bros. series (specifically Brawl) with Subspace and trophies has pretty much ruined a handful of things anyway.

Your everyday average boy named Ness (or whatever you name him, if you don't use the default names. But we all know default names are epic win) wakes up in the middle of the night when he hears a crash outside his house. Turns out a meteorite crash-landed up on a mountain behind his house. He sets out to investigate (not before his mom advises him to change out of his PJs) and finds his neighbor Pokey. That's Porky for you Brawl-players or those true to the Japanese game. Ness, Pokey, and Pokey's little brother Picky find themselves beside the meteorite when a fly/bee type insect from the future, who can talk, arrives before them. Long story short, he's come to the past because an evil alien named Giygas has taken over and caused chaos in his future full of turmoil. There is a prophecy that 3 boys and 1 girl, the Chosen Four, will rise to power and stop him. He believes that one of these boys is Ness. He equips Ness with a magical item called the Sound Stone. It's Ness's job to find the 8 "Your Sanctuary" locations around the world, each of which will record a piece of a magic melody into the Sound Stone. It's also his quest to find the other 3 children and bring them together to fight Giygas before the horrible future occurs.

It sounds pretty random, plus pretty cliché and barely original. Of the 3 Mother games, it is well-known that EB has the worst story. Mother 1, although very similar, atleast has backstory about the Sound Stone's melody and on Giygas. Mother 3, on the other hand, is a goldmine of awesome, very emotional story. It's said by Mother fans that Mother 3 is probably the Nintendo game with the deepest story, period. Some people even say Nintendo won't release it here because they think it's too sad and tear-inducing for a children's game (which I highly doubt is true, but the point still holds.) So, if you want epic story, play Mother 3.

Characters: The main characters of Earthbound should be familiar to you even if you've only played Smash Bros. games. This is also one of the great points where they combine traditional character styles but without the stereotypes of most RPGs. You primarily control Ness, a normal hat-wearing boy from the town of Onett. Instead of the usual swords and arrows, Ness's weaponry consists of baseball bats and yo-yos. He's also endowed with PSI powers (PSI in the American version, PK for Japanese. Generally people use PSI for the general term of the psychic powers, and PK for the actual offensive attacks.) He has two attacks, PK Flash and PK Rockin', along with a healing PSI and your usual Paralyze and Hypnosis. He's the son of two loving parents who support him all the way with all they can. They love him and don't need him to fill any high expectations or goals, they only want him to become a strong, nice boy. At the thought of this, Ness gets sad and homesick unless he cheers up by hearing his mother's sweet voice.

Your second party member is Paula Polestar, a young girl with extremely strong PSI abilities. She's famous in her home town of Twoson, but is soon kidnapped by a cult of Happy-Happyists (a sort of brain-washed religious cult) who apparently want to use her as a sacrifice. Obviously Ness saves her (oh sorry, did I ruin it? You thought the bad guys were gonna win?) Paula, instead of the stereotypical rods, staffs, and cloaks, equips herself with Frying Pans and bows for her hair. Although weak in terms of HP and Defense (I refer to her as Miss Dies-A-Lot), she is a PSI powerhouse. You Smash Bros. players, Paula is probably who you like best. I say that because Ness/Lucas in Smash Bros. is just Paula in disguise. Her moves consist of the PK Fire, PK Thunder, PK Freeze, and PSI Magnet.

Your third party member is Jeff Andonuts, bespectacled young student who is very intelligent. He's the son of famous scientist/inventor Dr. Andonuts, and Jeff himself is very adept at building things. He runs away from his fancy boarding school in Winters at the sound of Ness and Paula's SOS. Jeff's gameplay is the most unique of all. Jeff has no PSI powers. At all. He's like the Batman/Iron Man of the Chosen Four. He relies on his technological intelligence to make himself useful in battle. His weaponry becomes more powerful throughout the game, starting off with Airsoft Guns, Toy Guns, and Pop Guns, and later having laser beam guns and giant bazookas. Not only does he have his normal equip weapon, but there's also special items only he can use that deal massive damage, like Bottle Rockets. He also has special gadgets like HP Suckers, Shield Killers, and sticky goo that can paralyze. The great thing about him is that you'll find broken items along the way of your journey, and overnight in the hotels/Inns, he'll repair them into weapons or Jeff-items.

The fourth, and last party member is Prince Poo of Dalaam. Poo completes his princely warrior training in his kingdom and finds the trio to assist in the battle against Giygas. Poo, like Ness, is pretty balanced between his stats and his PSI, though he leans more on the PSI side. He's like a combination of Ness and Paula's. He's got Paula's PK Freeze and PK Thunder, but he's got Ness's healing PSI too. He's also the first member to know PSI Teleport (y'know, Ness's entrance in Smash 1 and Brawl) which is really useful. Poo is unique in that he's been trained in such a unique, foreign fighting style that equipping him with any armor or weapons will only DECREASE his stats. There are 4 Poo-only items that he can equip to raise his stats, and they are scattered and pretty rare. For example, his only weapon in the game, the Sword of Kings, can only be found in one dungeon, where it's a dropped item by one enemy. And that enemy has a 1 out of 128th chance of dropping it. However, getting all his equipment is worth it, as it pretty much makes him your 2nd strongest member (Ness is pretty much always the best, though Poo has better PSI.)

The characters are wonderful. The only thing about the game is the disappointment in the lack of character development. For instance, they throw the implied romance between Ness and Paula at you, like, 3 times through the game randomly, but then never develop on it. However, many would argue that the fact that you could really feel for the characters despite the fact that Ness is a silent protagonist and the other 3 only have, like, 2 lines in the whole game, is truly a miracle. I did not know, before EB, that it was even possible to feel connected to characters who didn't/rarely talked. With this game you feel like you're part of the Chosen Four, it's great.

Writing: In terms of non-plot writing, this is where the Mother series shines. The Mother series has humor unlike any other RPG. When you play this game, you have to immediately realize that this game doesn't take itself seriously. That's like saying the Scary Movie series takes itself seriously as a serious horror film (meh, maybe not that much.) Most of the writing is pretty much mocking RPG clichés. From overly dramatized moments that poke fun at serious story moments, to the wacky weapons, armor, and items that are parodies of usual RPG items. The NPC dialogue tends to be hilarious. The series has a great sense of humor, from Beatles references to just random and silly things. The enemies are just totally random, from punks on pogo-sticks to Scalding Hot Cups of Coffee. One of the main bosses/villians is a giant pile of puke!

It also has silly new things instead of the old, overused status ailments. Why have poison when you can catch a cold? (I kid you not, the game even says "Cute Li'l UFO fired a beam that causes nighttime stuffiness!") Why have the characters be blinded when you can have them can't stop crying? Why not have them Mushroomized or feeling funny instead of have them Confused? Diamondized instead of Frozen? It's great.

Gameplay: Another one of the series's shining moments. It's got the basic turn-based combat you'd expect from the likes of Final Fantasy. I've explained the strategy and uniqueness of the different characters fighting styles above. One of the main things that sets it apart is a Rolling HP System. To explain...When you get damage to one of your characters, his health goes down. However, his health goes down gradually (about, I'd estimate, 2 HP per second), and you can continue playing while it's going down. So what does that mean? That means, even if Ness has 20 HP and the enemy does 30 points of mortal damage to you, the battle will continue as long as you act quickly! More importantly, that means, even if you're dealt mortal damage, as long as you kill the enemy before your rolling HP reachs 0, you win. With or without mortal damage, if you act fast and end a battle, you keep the HP you had. So if you're dealt 30 damage, but the rolling HP counter only had time to go down 10, you'll keep that 20 HP of damage it never got to depleting. This is VERY useful in surviving, and will save your butt a lot of times if you're fast enough. However, it becomes more difficult as you get more party members, multiple of which who'll be dying at a time, and you quickly have to go through all their battle menus before they die.

Also, there's no random encounters. You can see all enemies on the overworld, and you can get away if you're fast enough to get into a building. Also, if you attack an enemy from behind or the sides, there's a chance of getting an extra first turn for a surprise opening attack. Vice versa if they do it to you.

Graphics and Music Some say one of the reasons EB failed in the US is because of its graphics. Apparently people thought EB didn't look good enough in comparison to other SNES games like Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, Super Mario World, etc. Despite that, it looks good enough for a SNES game. The colors are vibrant and the enemy battle sprites are decent. There's also trippin', psychedelic backgrounds during battle.

Most can agree that the music is one of the best parts of the Mother series. Even people who play only Brawl should know this. I am not lying when I say I spend most of my day listening to Mother 1, 2, AND 3 music on my computer. The themes are awesome, the locations have catchy, toe-tappin' background music, and the battle music's fun. The songs have tons of remixes and different versions, and some of the main themes have lyric versions and non-lyric versions. There's intense songs, emotional songs, and sad songs, to cater to all.

Overall: I could ramble on about how awesome EB is. There's so much I haven't mentioned, like the great exotic locations and the lovable Mr. Saturns. Earthbound stands as one of my favorite games of all time. I'm positive that when I play Mother 3, Mother 3 WILL be my FAVORITE game ever. (Because Mother 3 has deep story and character development up the arse, plus better GBA graphics.) If you're a Nintendo fan or an RPG fan, which I'm sure everyone here is atleast one of those, you will love Earthbound. In fact, there is no reason you have not played Earthbound yet. So no excuse. Go play it. Now. Seriously, go now. Trust me, it's more worth it than Mario Kart Wii or Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum. The game is just epic. It's only flaws are its lack of serious storytelling and lack of character development (but you can argue that the lack of main character dialogue is a good thing.) The game isn't so touching that it'll make you cry (unless perhaps tears of joy?), but you get engaged into it.

Oh, and in a realistic fight between Nintendo characters, Ness would indeed be one of the most powerful. He'd be able to knock Link's sword into the air with his bat, bash Mario with a Yo-yo, and PK Rockin' Kirby all at once. Seriously, you don't mess with the Mother characters. Ninten, Ness, Lucas, and their companions would kick butt in any realistic Smash Bros. universe.
Edited by Pixel, Aug 12 2008, 11:51 PM.
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BonBon
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Morphing Blob

Great job in this review. Excellent detail, and completely unbiased. AAA.
...damn. I wish I had Earthbound. Missed out on it as a kid. ;___;

And thank you for reviving a dead section.
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!~~~Infinite Insanity~~~!
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Pixel
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Desperate to escape becoming a hikikomori.
Meh. I feel like there were too many positive comments to say I was unbiased (I'm more of a "point out all the negatives" kind of guy), but I did cringe when having to criticize my precious Earthbound. That's how you know it's working! ;o

Fixed up some typos (called Paula a He >___> ) and added some things. Little.
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PSI Smash
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It's not hard to tell i like this review ^.^ but just as an opinion... I like Mother 3 more, it expanded on the greatness of the one before it.
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Pixel
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Desperate to escape becoming a hikikomori.
Yeah, it seems most Mother fans like Mother 3 the best of the series. I can't wait to play it once the fan-translation's done. Something tells me I'm still gonna like Jeff better than Duster, though (Jeff's my favorite character.) ;o

Too bad I've already been spoiled about 2 of the saddest plot points. ;____; DAMN YOU INTERNET!

For some reason, I'm surprisingly not that much in the mood to play Mother 1/Earthbound Zero. My friend told me it's hard, and requires grinding to level up in between dungeons/bosses. Meh. Besides, it's a NES RPG, so the graphics and audio will probably annoy me. Maybe I'll be in a Mother-mood after finishing Mother 3. =/
Edited by Pixel, Aug 13 2008, 09:00 AM.
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Azure Bullet
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that guy
nice review pixel
Don't give up.
Don't stop fighting for what you believe in.
Otherwise your life means nothing
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Pixel
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Desperate to escape becoming a hikikomori.
Thanks.
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Azure Bullet
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your welcome
Don't give up.
Don't stop fighting for what you believe in.
Otherwise your life means nothing
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Pixel
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Desperate to escape becoming a hikikomori.
This probably would've made more sense. Atleast for Ness.

Also, why doesn't Ness do his Fuzzy Pickles pose in the Smash games? It should atleast be either a taunt or a victory pose. Better than his victory pose of him scratching his head.
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Kamek101
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Local Scientist/Wizard

Great review Pixel. You lot are lucky though, you can actually play Earthbound. It wasn't realeased over here so ll I've got is Smash Bros and legends. I have seen the Pokey & Giygas battles on youtube though. Looks amazing.
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Pixel
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Desperate to escape becoming a hikikomori.
If they made a remake of EB, Wii or DS, and had the Giygas battle in 3D with voice, that'd be really scary.

"NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS NESS

I'....m....ha..p...py...

Go....back...

Ness!"

You cannot grasp the true form of Giygas' attack!

Even in 2D without voices, that was creeping me out. >___>
Edited by Pixel, Aug 19 2008, 09:54 PM.
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Kamek101
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If they did remake it, I'm praying that it gets released over here. Especially if that Giygas battle music stayed just as legendary.
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Pixel
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Desperate to escape becoming a hikikomori.
I highly doubt they'll remake it.

Itoi said he isn't making a Mother 4 or anything like that.

The chances of Earthbound on the VC are seeming slimmer and slimmer as time goes on,

And the chances of Mother 3 being officially translated and released here seem to be zero.
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Kamek101
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That's disappointing. =( But at least it means that they can't go too far and end up making second rate games or rehashes.
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Pixel
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Desperate to escape becoming a hikikomori.
I highly doubt Mother 4 would be bad. Especially considering the series generally got better from 1 to 2 to 3. =/ I do, however, respect Itoi's decision to stop it. It's a nice trilogy. Looks like there's ONE person at Nintendo who knows how to not milk a series for money.

I would totally buy an Earthbound remake, though.
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Lord Vicino
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Pixel. This review will be on the NintendoBeyond web site in the Reviews section. so others can read it.

BTW great review. I almost cried at the end. lol
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