I once heard someone say, "There are two kinds of people. Those that like Earthbound and those who haven't played it." While that may or may not be true, Earthbound, as well as the rest of the Mother series, has an extremely dedicated fanbase. I'm not going to claim to know much about the Mother series as Earthbound is my first excursion into it, but with all its loving fans, I knew I had to eventually play Earthbound, and I'm glad I did.
With that said though, I can't say I loved the game from start to finish. I'm not even sure I can say I loved the game. At the start of the game, I was entertained, but not impressed. To me, it seemed it was just Dragon Quest with a quirky coat of paint. That in itself is not a bad thing, but it wasn't enough for me to understand the love and attention that Earthbound gets. It felt even more like Dragon Quest in the first area of the game as I found it necessary to grind just to beat the first boss of the game.
The leveling evens out as you play and the need to grind is slowly eliminated, but the game then suffers from a different leveling issue. Ness is almost always part of the party and constantly getting stronger, but the same can't be said for the other characters. Two of the three other characters start at level 1 upon meeting them. While not uncommon in old RPG's, it leaves the party feeling like "Ness and a bunch of wimps." By the end of the game, you don't notice this problem, but it posed a problem throughout various sections of the game. I distinctly remember a boss using an attack that would almost always kill the weaker party members, which of course, meant that if the battle was won without them, the characters that desperately needed the experience were left getting none while Ness continued to get more overpowered. I may have been able to grind more to deal with this problem better, but I still found it to be frustrating.
Earthbound has a couple game mechanics that set it apart from traditional turn-based JRPG's like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. For one, the game technically doesn't have random battles. However, many of the enemies fly at Ness in wild patterns at 3 or 4 times Ness' speed. It's true that if you manage to get behind an enemy, you get first strike and vice versa, but most enemies at your level will charge at you in an unavoidable manner, so it isn't a lot different from random battles. Some enemies patterns' can be learned though, so it adds something to the game and a sense of more control over battles. The most notable mechanic though, is the HP digit-counter. When a character is hit, instead of losing hit points instantly, the player literally watches the character's health decrease until full damage has been received. This means that a character can receive more HP's worth of damage than they have and still survive. It's odd, but interesting as it forces players to act and think quickly. In some cases, even though a character has been dealt a mortal blow, instead of healing, it might make more sense to attack the enemy in an attempt to kill it before you lose your HP.
I've focused mainly on the gameplay up to this point, but that's not where the appeal and the "magic" of Earthbound comes from. The story is usually the driving force of an RPG after all. With Earthbound, however, it's not even really the story that makes it so memorable. It's the charming setting, characters, and sense of humor. There aren't very many games that have had jokes or content that made me genuinely laugh, but Earthbound earned its spot on that short list. It constantly breaks RPG conventions and pokes fun at what we know and love about traditional RPG's. I'd hate to spoil the highlights of the game to anyone who hasn't played it yet, but it's hard to imagine someone finishing Earthbound and walking away without having any favorite moments. If not a single thing in the game makes you laugh, smile, or at least chuckle, you just might not have a soul.
Another thing that is often heavily praised about Earthbound is the soundtrack. It contains a lot of atmospheric tracks to accompany the strange adventures of Ness and his friends. This isn't always a positive thing though, as it often amounts to nothing but noise as you travel through dungeons. Not only that, but most of the time, the loop is painfully obvious, with a large audio hiccup breaking the atmosphere. Outside of the atmospheric tracks though, there are some memorable tunes. The goofy theme of Saturn Valley is quirky and catchy while the theme for Ness' home is emotional and evokes feelings of nostalgia. Earthbound's soundtrack does a good job of conveying a lot of different emotions and accompanies key points and locations in the game very well.
Even with a great soundtrack and sense of humor, I wasn't quite convinced that Earthbound deserved to be in so many "Best RPG" lists. That is, until I reached the ending. I hate to be so easily swayed by such a small portion of a game, but Earthbound's ending is one of the best I've seen and really pulls the game together. The feeling you get from the final battle is difficult to put into words, especially without spoiling anything, but to say the least, it's very satisfying. Then when the game comes to a close and all's said and done, I honestly felt a little sad to say goodbye. I can't say the ending is so good it made me forget entirely about the game's flaws... but it certainly comes close.
I was reluctant to let Earthbound win me over. At first, I just thought the game was ugly and janky. I had trouble looking past the game's pacing issues and got sick of walking through all of the cities. The word, "overrated," kept coming to mind. Somehow though, by the end, I couldn't help but be won over. It's a refreshing experience and a nice change of pace from your average RPG. I guess that means I'm with the group that likes Earthbound... and the group that wants to play Mother 3.
