I was born in 2001 and I loved playing Earthbound and seeing the 90s aesthetic. I had no idea that receiver phones were a thing until I played this game
I beat earthbound myself earlier this year, it really surprised me with how quirky and fun to learn it is. Also it’s kinda crazy how early this game was doing fourth wall breaks! Games hadn’t really done that at that point. And I was also surprised to learn that the meme music (the music that people use when a meme makes you go, “huh?”) was from this game. But yeah loved the battle mechanics. My fav fight was probably the carbon dog fight. Favorite area might be moonside just because I didn’t expect it. Fav enemy is probably the Beautiful UFO just because I love the concept of taking something that would never be associated with cuteness and giving it cuteness/beauty, so absurd. Fav gags are probably: The Onett Joke about “Yes/No terday,” in reference to the Beatles song, the No. 3 Moles, and that random Threed guy, whom upon seeing the usefulness of the Zombie Fly Paper, just says, “Wow, if Zombie paper works so well I’d really love some Pretty Girl Paper. On second thought maybe that’s a bit insensitive of me.” Like that last one caught me off guard LOL That being said it’s such a fun and varied game, there’s always something different to like about it almost every time you play it.
As a 90s kid, I played it in its day, and I've loved Earthbound from the beginning. I heard you say surreal, but you didn't say absurd. One of my favorite aspects is how intentionally and creatively pointless some things are, like the health meters rolling. There's no need for that, it's just fun. The narrative pacing is really great, as you hinted at. It knows when to be silly, serious, heartfelt, optimistic, or frightening, and it spreads those moments nicely throughout. You get both a real sense of progress and a real sense of sacrifice by the very end. Truly a masterpiece I'll always cherish. Just wish I still had the scratch and sniff stickers!
I was born 6 years after the game released and it's one of my FGOATs I have so much nostalgia for Chuggaa's second LP in 2018 and I love the tent glitch and out of bounds stuff The characters enemies and music are all perfect. Iwata was a legend for helping the devs fix it and saving it at the last minute
The concept and evil ambiguous nature of giygas grasped me enough to play the game and now still even after it im still left ruminating over how bizarrely scary and evil giygas is.
Ive been getting SOOOO into earthbound lately, i even got the new mother 2 the chosen 4 plush set. That being said, this review is perfectly timed for me!!
There just wasn't anything quite like it back in the day. I think Toby Fox was able to capture some of the charm in Undertale but Earthbound just has more to it. The trippy backgrounds are a huge part of the atmosphere to me and I couldn't imagine Earthbound without them
This video actually made me try Mother 3 for the first time. I liked Earthbound but i randomly stopped halfway through and lost the save file but I do intend to try again one day.
Illusion of Time ("illusion of gaia" in U.S.), Link to the Past, and Secret of Evermore set the tone for me for that era. I didn't play Terranigma ("sequel" to Illusion of Gaia) until i was an adult, but i also loved it too. I haven't played Chrono Trigger or FF6 but I've heard they're wonderful too.
If I knew I would have spent my $500 on 23 copies of Earthbound back in 2001. Best Buy was selling it for $20 at that time and I think it went to $15 at one point. I got it for $20
one of my fave games ever. My first encounter was renting randomly at blockbuster...fell in love with it and didn't even wanna return it. I bought it soon after with saved up money. My biggest regret is selling it to my friend for 20 bucks in high school (yeah I know, dumb thing to do).
Earthbound really is a timeless classic. An RGP that decided to break the norm and try its own style, and it succeeded amazingly! The soundtrack was definitely my favorite, but everything you mentioned is absolutely true! Have you ever played Moon RPG Remix? It's an anti-RPG that was made by ex Square Soft staff for the PS1. I strongly recommend you check it out (especially when it has a Switch port).
Was a RPG kid started on SNES FF2 (4). Moved onto FF Mystic Quest, Secret of Evermore, Breath of Fire 1, 2, Chrono Trigger. Then moved and made friends with another RPG kid. He introduced me to Lufia 1/2, Mario RPG, FF3(6), Secret of Mana, Illusion of Gaia and after years of friendship his dad got him Earthbound out of a clearance bin. We played Earthbound nonstop. Constantly start new games, come up with new names for characters, new favorite foods etc. It was such a unique game that you could spend hours doing nothing and still have fun. Even after FF7 came out and changed the RPG landscape we would still go back to Earthbound every once and a while during a sleepover just to have fun with.
While the game play isn’t riveting, the overall vibe, music, art, ideas, and philosophy are what really put this game in my top 5. It made me think, and years later I think about aspects of it almost daily. A true masterpiece
Couldn’t agree more. Easily in the top 3 for my favorite games of all time. Music and setting is key. My only gripe with the game is for new players to JRPG’s, it can be kinda grindy at first. I remember when I was like 7-8 back when it came out I struggled so hard on Frank, went out and did some grinding, whooped Frank, and then got caught up again on the Onett police. I was very irratated that I had to go grind AGAIN. But after that, it was smooth sailing. That may be on me though as it was my first RPG and maybe I wasn’t fighting enough.
I'd love to play this game someday. It looks so unique and colorful and lively. The plot sounds neat and all the points you mention make it sound even more appealing. As for the dialogue of NPCs changing based on what you do and what part of the plot you are in FFVIII, FFIX, and Chrono Cross also does this to a degree.
Mild spoilers. If you are thinking of playing this game don't read my yapping down below. Have fun! ----------------------- The only thing I don't like about earthbound is the fact that I can't play it again I played earthbound probably in January of this year, I still remember all the times I got saved by luck. Like beating the whole dream section of the game in one try and surviving with only ONE HP because I forgot random items on me. Or all the times the game took away party members and the game instantly changed in gameplay. The lab in winters got me leaving down my switch controller just to appreciate the music and you can't even imagine the feeling I got when I arrived in Summers, since I am from Greece, that whole place feels like home. I will always love and remember all the disturbing aspects of the game or all the times the game broke the fourth wall randomly just to ask me the player questions. I have been making music for some years now and looking at earthbound's way of sampling was groundbreaking to me. Your favourite earthbound track might always be a random obscure or a random famous track from like the 80's, that someone decided to sample so hard that it turns into battle music or ambience. The game sometimes gets sarcastically real(?). It's pretty funny how 5-6 cops randomly lock a kid up and then start kicking the crap out of it but it's kind of a realistic scenario nowadays. I just wish we didn't get on the NSO the American sprite changes I would love seeing random crows with cigarettes at the start of the game. 😂
@@thecunninlynguist Beginnings is unplayable if you just want to have fun, even now knowing what's up I still don't feel like playing more of it. Earthbound starts hard because you have to spend time understanding how everything works, from what attacks do to what damage they deal and where. For some people even the reading and understanding of text in battles might be hard for them. Your character not attacking because they miss their mother it's not something you see everyday in games. Near the final "chapters" of the game is where the game gets actually hard. Enemies deal huge damage, they come in groups most times and most of them hurt multiple party members. Leveling up to get OP won't really help you. I remember searching up how good I should get to defeat the last robot part of the game and many sites said something about the game not giving a crap because it's not like the other RPGs.
Only played the first hr or so of Earthbound when it came too Wii U VC, but really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on this. Might try to pick it up again soon
I received EarthBound the Christmas of 1995 and it quickly became my all-time favorite game. But when I was a teenager, my mother convinced me to throw the box away. Ever since then, I've kicked myself for doing that and have been looking for someone selling the box at a decent price.
I wasn't gaming back when Earthbound released, so I've never played it. I briefly thought about checking it out on NSO at some point. This video kinda has me looking forward to it. I'll be playing it sooner rather than later.
It's definitely a very unique game even to this day. I think I first played it about 10 years ago on 3DS so perhaps it's about time I replay it as well? I think a remake could be really good, especially if it meant Mother 3 also getting one and an official localisation after so long.
Mother 2 was one of my first RPGs ever, I wanna say 2nd right in-between Final Fantasy 5 and Super Mario RPG, and I also played it before I ever played Smash Bros, so I already knew Ness when I unlocked him, and I was already into it before the internet made it into a phenomenon so like... I'm exactly the kind of person you'd expect to hold this game in VERY high regard... But I kinda don't... I honestly like Mother 1 the most. Here's the thing right, Mother 2 and 3 naturally have A LOT more dialogue, and therefore, A LOT more room for quirky gags, emotional scenes, character development, and so on and so forth, but like... For one, Mother 2 gets a lot of the credit for things that *Were Already There In Mother 1* and people just don't realise it, heck, things that were already there in frickin' Dragon Quest 1 and people don't realise it... For two, Mother 2 and 3 are gonna play out the same way every time you play through them... Yeah, you can go back and find some dialogue you didn't already know was there, which is nice, but like, in Mother 1 you can literally skip two characters and still finish the game... You can get the 8 melodies in any order you want, and in-fact, the fastest speedrun route gets all 8 melodies out-of-order... And for three, it's not THAT Frickin' Hard! The game gives you every crutch you need to deal with its 'high difficulty', laser guns for Lloyd behind the counter, Sword for Teddy, Frickin' Eve? You're supposed to play smarter, not harder, and the game rewards you for strategising instead of just mashing A.
I have been watching the price of Earthbound since 2006. I remember seeing the cartridge go for around 80 back then. Kept passing on it and now it is too expensive. I did at least bite the bullet and bought Chrono Trigger complete in 2016. Thought I was crazy to pay what I paid but glad I did now.
I’m in the middle of a playthrough right now. Just got to Summers. I played Mother 3 first and my impression so far is that Mother 3 is Earthbound but better is pretty much every way. Better humor, better combat, better pacing, better story, at least in my opinion
See, when it comes to "differenty" RPGs, yours are Earthbound and Chrono Trigger. Mine are Earthbound and Illusion of Gaia. At least from the SNES era.
Is there a scene in this game where a fat kid pushes you down a hole? I have a weird toddler memory watching a game where that happened and i think earthbound looks similar to what I saw.
Well I don't remember any such scene but Earthbound does have an antagonistic kid that fits that description called Porky, or Pokey in the original English translation, so maybe it is that game.
I was born in 2001 and I loved playing Earthbound and seeing the 90s aesthetic. I had no idea that receiver phones were a thing until I played this game
I was hoping Sez would talk about earthbound one day.
Unfortunately, we only got 15 minutes.
We need one day. ;)
I beat earthbound myself earlier this year, it really surprised me with how quirky and fun to learn it is.
Also it’s kinda crazy how early this game was doing fourth wall breaks! Games hadn’t really done that at that point. And I was also surprised to learn that the meme music (the music that people use when a meme makes you go, “huh?”) was from this game.
But yeah loved the battle mechanics. My fav fight was probably the carbon dog fight. Favorite area might be moonside just because I didn’t expect it. Fav enemy is probably the Beautiful UFO just because I love the concept of taking something that would never be associated with cuteness and giving it cuteness/beauty, so absurd.
Fav gags are probably: The Onett Joke about “Yes/No terday,” in reference to the Beatles song, the No. 3 Moles, and that random Threed guy, whom upon seeing the usefulness of the Zombie Fly Paper, just says, “Wow, if Zombie paper works so well I’d really love some Pretty Girl Paper. On second thought maybe that’s a bit insensitive of me.” Like that last one caught me off guard LOL
That being said it’s such a fun and varied game, there’s always something different to like about it almost every time you play it.
As a 90s kid, I played it in its day, and I've loved Earthbound from the beginning.
I heard you say surreal, but you didn't say absurd. One of my favorite aspects is how intentionally and creatively pointless some things are, like the health meters rolling. There's no need for that, it's just fun. The narrative pacing is really great, as you hinted at. It knows when to be silly, serious, heartfelt, optimistic, or frightening, and it spreads those moments nicely throughout. You get both a real sense of progress and a real sense of sacrifice by the very end.
Truly a masterpiece I'll always cherish. Just wish I still had the scratch and sniff stickers!
I was born 6 years after the game released and it's one of my FGOATs
I have so much nostalgia for Chuggaa's second LP in 2018
and I love the tent glitch and out of bounds stuff
The characters enemies and music are all perfect. Iwata was a legend for helping the devs fix it and saving it at the last minute
Episode Tent will never not be legendary. XD
The concept and evil ambiguous nature of giygas grasped me enough to play the game and now still even after it im still left ruminating over how bizarrely scary and evil giygas is.
Ive been getting SOOOO into earthbound lately, i even got the new mother 2 the chosen 4 plush set. That being said, this review is perfectly timed for me!!
There just wasn't anything quite like it back in the day. I think Toby Fox was able to capture some of the charm in Undertale but Earthbound just has more to it. The trippy backgrounds are a huge part of the atmosphere to me and I couldn't imagine Earthbound without them
Say “fuzzy pickles”! ✌️
This video actually made me try Mother 3 for the first time. I liked Earthbound but i randomly stopped halfway through and lost the save file but I do intend to try again one day.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Now I'm going to watch the Earthbound AVGN video again! 🙂
Illusion of Time ("illusion of gaia" in U.S.), Link to the Past, and Secret of Evermore set the tone for me for that era. I didn't play Terranigma ("sequel" to Illusion of Gaia) until i was an adult, but i also loved it too.
I haven't played Chrono Trigger or FF6 but I've heard they're wonderful too.
If I knew I would have spent my $500 on 23 copies of Earthbound back in 2001. Best Buy was selling it for $20 at that time and I think it went to $15 at one point. I got it for $20
Great video! Brought back a lot of good memories with Earth Bound
one of my fave games ever. My first encounter was renting randomly at blockbuster...fell in love with it and didn't even wanna return it. I bought it soon after with saved up money. My biggest regret is selling it to my friend for 20 bucks in high school (yeah I know, dumb thing to do).
I literally finished the game yesterday! It was great!
Congrats on the run!
Earthbound really is a timeless classic. An RGP that decided to break the norm and try its own style, and it succeeded amazingly! The soundtrack was definitely my favorite, but everything you mentioned is absolutely true!
Have you ever played Moon RPG Remix? It's an anti-RPG that was made by ex Square Soft staff for the PS1. I strongly recommend you check it out (especially when it has a Switch port).
Was a RPG kid started on SNES FF2 (4). Moved onto FF Mystic Quest, Secret of Evermore, Breath of Fire 1, 2, Chrono Trigger. Then moved and made friends with another RPG kid. He introduced me to Lufia 1/2, Mario RPG, FF3(6), Secret of Mana, Illusion of Gaia and after years of friendship his dad got him Earthbound out of a clearance bin. We played Earthbound nonstop. Constantly start new games, come up with new names for characters, new favorite foods etc. It was such a unique game that you could spend hours doing nothing and still have fun. Even after FF7 came out and changed the RPG landscape we would still go back to Earthbound every once and a while during a sleepover just to have fun with.
While the game play isn’t riveting, the overall vibe, music, art, ideas, and philosophy are what really put this game in my top 5. It made me think, and years later I think about aspects of it almost daily. A true masterpiece
Couldn’t agree more. Easily in the top 3 for my favorite games of all time. Music and setting is key.
My only gripe with the game is for new players to JRPG’s, it can be kinda grindy at first. I remember when I was like 7-8 back when it came out I struggled so hard on Frank, went out and did some grinding, whooped Frank, and then got caught up again on the Onett police. I was very irratated that I had to go grind AGAIN. But after that, it was smooth sailing. That may be on me though as it was my first RPG and maybe I wasn’t fighting enough.
I'd love to play this game someday. It looks so unique and colorful and lively. The plot sounds neat and all the points you mention make it sound even more appealing.
As for the dialogue of NPCs changing based on what you do and what part of the plot you are in FFVIII, FFIX, and Chrono Cross also does this to a degree.
Mild spoilers. If you are thinking of playing this game don't read my yapping down below. Have fun!
-----------------------
The only thing I don't like about earthbound is the fact that I can't play it again
I played earthbound probably in January of this year, I still remember all the times I got saved by luck. Like beating the whole dream section of the game in one try and surviving with only ONE HP because I forgot random items on me. Or all the times the game took away party members and the game instantly changed in gameplay.
The lab in winters got me leaving down my switch controller just to appreciate the music and you can't even imagine the feeling I got when I arrived in Summers, since I am from Greece, that whole place feels like home.
I will always love and remember all the disturbing aspects of the game or all the times the game broke the fourth wall randomly just to ask me the player questions.
I have been making music for some years now and looking at earthbound's way of sampling was groundbreaking to me. Your favourite earthbound track might always be a random obscure or a random famous track from like the 80's, that someone decided to sample so hard that it turns into battle music or ambience.
The game sometimes gets sarcastically real(?). It's pretty funny how 5-6 cops randomly lock a kid up and then start kicking the crap out of it but it's kind of a realistic scenario nowadays.
I just wish we didn't get on the NSO the American sprite changes I would love seeing random crows with cigarettes at the start of the game. 😂
game isn't that hard...not grindy at all, unlike EB Beginnings.
@@thecunninlynguist Beginnings is unplayable if you just want to have fun, even now knowing what's up I still don't feel like playing more of it.
Earthbound starts hard because you have to spend time understanding how everything works, from what attacks do to what damage they deal and where. For some people even the reading and understanding of text in battles might be hard for them. Your character not attacking because they miss their mother it's not something you see everyday in games.
Near the final "chapters" of the game is where the game gets actually hard. Enemies deal huge damage, they come in groups most times and most of them hurt multiple party members. Leveling up to get OP won't really help you. I remember searching up how good I should get to defeat the last robot part of the game and many sites said something about the game not giving a crap because it's not like the other RPGs.
Only played the first hr or so of Earthbound when it came too Wii U VC, but really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on this. Might try to pick it up again soon
I received EarthBound the Christmas of 1995 and it quickly became my all-time favorite game. But when I was a teenager, my mother convinced me to throw the box away. Ever since then, I've kicked myself for doing that and have been looking for someone selling the box at a decent price.
I wasn't gaming back when Earthbound released, so I've never played it. I briefly thought about checking it out on NSO at some point. This video kinda has me looking forward to it. I'll be playing it sooner rather than later.
One of the best and most influential games ever made for sure. Inspired the whole Pokemon franchise and games like undertale
It's definitely a very unique game even to this day. I think I first played it about 10 years ago on 3DS so perhaps it's about time I replay it as well? I think a remake could be really good, especially if it meant Mother 3 also getting one and an official localisation after so long.
Just dropping a comment to help with engagement 🤗
Mother 2 was one of my first RPGs ever, I wanna say 2nd right in-between Final Fantasy 5 and Super Mario RPG, and I also played it before I ever played Smash Bros, so I already knew Ness when I unlocked him, and I was already into it before the internet made it into a phenomenon so like... I'm exactly the kind of person you'd expect to hold this game in VERY high regard... But I kinda don't... I honestly like Mother 1 the most.
Here's the thing right, Mother 2 and 3 naturally have A LOT more dialogue, and therefore, A LOT more room for quirky gags, emotional scenes, character development, and so on and so forth, but like... For one, Mother 2 gets a lot of the credit for things that *Were Already There In Mother 1* and people just don't realise it, heck, things that were already there in frickin' Dragon Quest 1 and people don't realise it... For two, Mother 2 and 3 are gonna play out the same way every time you play through them... Yeah, you can go back and find some dialogue you didn't already know was there, which is nice, but like, in Mother 1 you can literally skip two characters and still finish the game... You can get the 8 melodies in any order you want, and in-fact, the fastest speedrun route gets all 8 melodies out-of-order... And for three, it's not THAT Frickin' Hard! The game gives you every crutch you need to deal with its 'high difficulty', laser guns for Lloyd behind the counter, Sword for Teddy, Frickin' Eve? You're supposed to play smarter, not harder, and the game rewards you for strategising instead of just mashing A.
I have been watching the price of Earthbound since 2006. I remember seeing the cartridge go for around 80 back then. Kept passing on it and now it is too expensive. I did at least bite the bullet and bought Chrono Trigger complete in 2016. Thought I was crazy to pay what I paid but glad I did now.
...I consider Diamond Dog or Shroooooom to be the hardest boss for me, lol
Oh god yeah lmao. I'll throw in Ness' Nightmare
@@ShesezTheNews But yeah that clumsy bot or whatever he was called was annoying sometimes, those damn bologna sandwiches. xD
I've never played Earthbound but maybe I'll have to at some point since Ness has been my main in Smash Bros. since the N64.
You must fulfil the "Huge Earthbound fan excited to play it for the first time" meme! 😉
hell yeah
I miss the 90s.
What ever happened to the 90s?
Title shoulda been “Shesez Earthbound is a timeless classic” lol
Great video 👍
Are you amoung the group that believes that Earthbound deserves an HD remaster?
I’m in the middle of a playthrough right now. Just got to Summers. I played Mother 3 first and my impression so far is that Mother 3 is Earthbound but better is pretty much every way. Better humor, better combat, better pacing, better story, at least in my opinion
See, when it comes to "differenty" RPGs, yours are Earthbound and Chrono Trigger. Mine are Earthbound and Illusion of Gaia. At least from the SNES era.
The man knows how to pronounce Onett.
Is there a scene in this game where a fat kid pushes you down a hole? I have a weird toddler memory watching a game where that happened and i think earthbound looks similar to what I saw.
Well I don't remember any such scene but Earthbound does have an antagonistic kid that fits that description called Porky, or Pokey in the original English translation, so maybe it is that game.
It just IS, that’s why
I played earthbound once. It was ok
How come
I bought my copy I had new in a discount bin at toys r us for like $30
Omg lmao!!!