A wacky weird adventure that is also a very deep one.
Before we start the review I wanted to talk a little bit about Earthbound. Well first off, Earthbound is a very rare game due to the fact that it was the only part of the series that wasn't just released in Japan. You see in Japan the series is called Mother, it's a trilogy of games in Japan, while in America we only had one of the three, we have Mother 2 which is known here as Earthbound probably due to the fact that it would be confusing to call it Mother 2 and not have a Mother 1 so thus a different title was born. When they did send Earthbound overseas to America they sold it in limited quantitys because they thought that it wouldn't sell that much, which it did not, and thats why Mother 3 did not come out in North America. Even though it did not sell too great, it would later draw a cult following and become to many one of their favorite games on the Snes and the reason you are able to play as Ness and Lucas in Smash Bros. To get this game on the Snes will cost you a pretty penny, on Amazon it's listed for a thousand dollars new and two hundred and fifty dollars just for a used copy. As a game collector their will be someday that I will buy this game, but I just don't have the money right now. Luckily for me Nintendo put it on their Wii U Virtual Console for only ten dollars.
Story: The story in this one is pretty simple Ness has the destiny of being the chosen one in his world he must stop an alien by the name of Gigayas, and he must go to seven sanctuary marks in the game to record certain sounds to stop Gigayas, it's a simple story, but it's enjoyable... but to be honest this is pretty much everything to the story. The reason I say this is because even though their are a lot of areas of intrest that you explore, their isn't a whole lot of rhyme or reason to them due to the fact that that most of them don't have to much of a story too them, i mean sure there are some areas that have some interesting things that go on in these areas, but they never have much of a connection to the actual plot of the story, So I like the story but I just feel that their wasn't a whole lot of effort put into it. I would also like to mention that since this is a Snes game, that it does have a little leaniancy due to the fact that most games in this generation of gaming were based more on the gameplay then the story due to the limitations of the software, So i get that but I just think it could of been done a little better.
Presentation:The presentation in this game is also decent but for some reason I feel like it is a bit dull in some areas, I mean don't get me wrong their are some great areas in this game especially Moonside, but other areas while different in some of it's appearance just feel like a lot of the areas you have already been too. Like I said their are some really nice looking city's but again most of them aren't too impresive graphically speaking. The music in this game is one thing I will say that is done perfectly, every tune in this game is great and makes a lifeless town turn into a more interesting town because of it.
Gameplay: This is where I think the game shines the most. Earthbound is an Rpg Adventure, and I have to say, while I am not a huge RPG fan I have to give credit where credit is due, while challenging, the Rpg element in this game is fantastic and what truly made me like this game a lot, while it is great though, their are some parts that can be completely frustrating, first off before we even talk about the RPG mechanic, lets talk about the way they throw you into the gameplay, which I think is this games biggest flaw they literally, tell you nothing about anything, you must figure out literally everthing by yourself, if you don't have a walkthrough for this game you are in for a lot of trouble. The game will help you out but you have to figure out how to get it to help you out, if you don't know what an item does you highlight the item and press help and it will tell you what it does, same goes for what new PSI attacks do, and this is fine but I didn't figure this out until the end of the game, they literally don't tell you anything about this stuff, I know a lot of people,even including me, hate when a game gives you too much info at once, but that dosen't excuse any game from telling you literally nothing in terms of playing it. Other then that though the gameplay is completley enjoyable. A lot would argue that the Rpg segments, have nothing too them, but look at Pokemon the first generation on the Gameboy, it didn't have a whole lot of things going on during battle, so whats the difference, sure playing battle after battle can get a bit tiresome but the actual look of combat can be appealing to look at. The actual gameplay of the Rpg segments are nearly perfect, you have to be good at this game because this is one hell of a challenging game, and they reward you well, by continuing to get stronger, because those once, really strong enemies later become pushovers. Their are so many tricks you can also pull out against the enemy, what I mean is the PSI attacks all of them are very useful and will help a tremendous deal during the length of your journey. each charcter you gain in this game is also a huge help and I mean every single one, Paula has great PSI strength and is a great healer, Jeff can make very helpful weapons, and Poo(lol... Poo) can be extremely strong and will help you a great deal alongside Ness. The boss battles are challenging and also a joy to play. The gameplay in this game is pretty much perfect.
(Spoiler Alert)
(Spoiler Alert)The final battle is against Gigayas, he is incredibly strong and one of my favorite boss battles in gaming, if you are a newcomer to this game, get ready to be beaten over and over again, after you get to his final form you must pray nine times to beat him and everyone throughout you journey will give you strength even you, yeah they even make you pray for them which I thought was really immersive due to the fact that you are also dealing damage to this guy by doing this. This is one of those iconic moments in gaming, and Like I said one of my all time favorite boss battles in gaming, and after, you get a great ending which I wont spoil.
Overall Earthbound may not be a masterpeice in my eyes, but it was an incredible journey and I would definitley play it again, every person that would like to go on an adventure in a gaming world should play this.