I just finished playing Earthbound for the first time, and I ... don't really get the appeal.
There are lots of things I would have changed about how the game operates if I had the chance. I could never tell what its expectations of my power level are, especially early on. I felt like I had to be continuously grinding if I wanted to get anywhere, which I definitely don't ever want to do. By the end navigating through the world and getting into battles felt so arduously slow. I didn't use any save states, but were it not for speed-up options in my emulator I probably would have given up half way through. I don't feel any particular investment in any of the characters, so seeing everybody get saved wasn't particularly rewarding. The inventory system was clunky, even though I didn't end up needing any of the items I collected anyway. And the final battle made absolutely no sense mechanically. You know that one skill we gave you that serves almost no purpose throughout the game and you have no precedent for needing? Yeah, you're gonna have to do that a bunch of times. Oh did you not think of that immediately? It's okay, you're only a scant fifteen minutes of grinding away until you get to fight the boss again.
I get the "you've grown and come so far" sort of journeying story, but none of it really matters if I don't care about who's going on the journey. Maybe I'm just not seeing things through the right nostalgia lenses, maybe the game was revolutionary for its time. But as it sits right now from a fresh perspective, I just don't understand the attachment that lots of others I know have towards the game.
Still have to find out why people keep saying Undermeme is a ripoff of this, aside from pixelshit grafix and combat not being the usual jrpg mindless attack/skill until enemy dies they're a world apart
If you liked my review please comment, like and subscribe!
Not gonna read any of that, but I will say one thing.
Earthbound as a series is not for everyone. With that in mind, you should consider the idea that you are not one of those people it would appeal to.
Now take your blog shit elsewhere. Nobody cares.
>>319414830
this was the first pleasant review i've ever read on this site
I could finish the game if the encounter rate was at the half amount. I've already tried twice, the second time I managed to get the fourth party member. The fighting/grinding is just filler, the main focus is on the awesome characters, environments and events. Earthbound does also have one of the best OSTs. I can see it's a very good game, but enjoying the events gets harder when you get tired going through dungeons.
>>319415106
>>319415554
Not even OP but since when was actually writing a decent post about videogames a bad thing? Fuck off.
Earthbound is a shit game, you got meme'd by nostalgiafags who played it when they were 7.
>>319415953
>Discussing games on /v/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwHZwvTdnPI
Nobody cares about Earthbound, though.
Mother 3 is the good one.
>>319414830 (OP)
It's not 'nostalgia lenses', I beat the game a few years back. you said it yourself 'I don't care about who's going on the journey', you didn't like the characters or Poo the bigshot indian boy who can get all the pussy, which is fine, that's completely your opinion and experience and that's why the game probably didn't click for you.
I still think the combat holds up especially when the HP goes in the 100's and you have to hurry to lifeup or get food items till the counter ticks to 0. You didn't like the presentation and that's cool, that's what opinions are for.
Inb4 brava earthbound brava
>>319416013
There are people who are poorly emulating the game and hence are getting the hard mode. They won't even know until the end
>>319415554
>Earthbound as a series is not for everyone.
Then it's probably not a very good series.
>>319414830
This is the One.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQBWdda55n0
op, you should check out undertale. "it's earthbound done right", according to the devs.
>>319414830
I don't get the purpouse of this thread
>>319417110
The devs never said that.
>>319416702
hard mode?
>>319414830
>If I had the chance
>He doesn't know about the starman.net EarthBound rom editor
You can easily rewrite the entire script in the game, change any character or item's stats and name, basically rework the entire game except its graphics and sequence of events. It's over a decade old, too.
>>319414830
>I felt like I had to be continuously grinding if I wanted to get anywhere, which I definitely don't ever want to do.
If you need to grind outside of Onett you are bad at videogames.
>>319416727
That doesn't make sense. I'm not into racing games. Should racing games try to appeal to me or racing fans? According to your logic, both, which is stupid.
>>319414830
>but were it not for speed-up options in my emulator I probably would have given up half way through
holy fucking shit this, i've been replaying a lot of ps1/2 jrpg lately and while i'm enjoying many of them i'm pretty sure i'd have dropped most of them if there wasn't speed hack
>>319414830
I played the game and I rarely had to grind.
>>319414830
nobody ever sees the appeal of something they played for the sake of meeting some expectations transposed on them by somebody or something else
You might think people liking something is caused by nostalgia but the more likely reason is that your own mental image of it has been so inflated compared to what theirs was when they experienced it
the weird thing about the human mind is that it automatically loves everything it thinks it thought of doing and only begrudgingly accepts at best everything that it knows it didn't but does nonetheless for its own sake
anyway the real funny thing is that Toby no doubt still holds Earthbound in a much higher regard than his own game
and if he didn't it would only be because his ego had grown from the positive feedback his game has received
in other words a very similar phenomena to what I've already described as happening to you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXk7D_dwgQw
>>319414830
it's an RPG. If you don't care about the story or characters, you'll hate the game.
>>319418260
>the weird thing about the human mind is that it automatically loves everything it thinks it thought of doing and only begrudgingly accepts at best everything that it knows it didn't but does nonetheless for its own sake
Nonsense. Plain pseudoscience.
>tfw paid 200 dollars for a legit cartridge of Earthbound, even though I never played it before
>and liked it
feels good man
>>319418774
I mean it is psychology
>>319417354
There's anti-piracy measures on the cart that increases encounter rates and actually fucking deletes your save file before you fight Giygas if you manage to get that far. Most emulators have long since passed the point where that is an issue, but you can still experience it with a Game Genie code
>>319418542
There is almost 0 story in Earthbound dude.
>>319419427
yeah, it's just like "SAVE THE WORLD CUZ YOU DA BEST" which I kinda like about it. you kinda make your own adventure out of it all.
>>319415896
> not grinding until all random battles were auto victory's.
>>319419268
oh sheit, i was lucky then
>>319415953
ok OP whatever you say
>>319414830
You're a fucking faggot, dude.
>>319414830
I agree with your points but still loved Earthbound and Mother 3
>too much grinding, and it seems to slingshot your abilities so everything's either too hard or a cakewalk
>teammates besides the main one are chronically underdeveloped
>lots of older games are too slow for my ADHD mind, Earthbound and Pokémon being the two biggest offenders
>that fucking pray mechanic for the final boss
But the atmosphere totally captured me, the writing and scenarios were charming and I really dig things that are targeted at children on the surface but totally aren't if you pay attention.Both games made me cry. Mother 3 a handful of times
earthbound gives back what you put into it. its not the type of game thats going to try and impress you as you sit back passively.
there's some clunkiness but it's also like 20 years old at this point.
>>319417354
>>319419268
>>319420664
http://starmen.net/mother2/gameinfo/antipiracy/
>>319422406
>At $C3FDC5 is another checksum routine that goes through $C0A11C-$C0A150. This one is called after Pokey turns off the Devil's Machine. If any data in that range has been changed, the checksum fails, the game deletes all your saved games (seriously) and then it crashes/freezes up. Neat.
>>319414830
well i'm not underage so i really enjoyed it when i played it back in the day, and i've replayed it quite a few times since
>>319419268
>>319422709
>yamamoto what we should do to convince pirates to buy our game instead of pirating?
>easy, let's just randomly break the game with no explanation
>>319423109
you were underage when you played it, probably that's because you liked it, i mean kids today like cod and asscreed
