The words "Terribly Underrated" don't even describe how this game got treated outside Japan.
This game is without a doubt an amazing game that didn't got the treatment it deserves. Many people say that this game resembles the Final Fantasy series. Honestly, I am kind of tired of the Final Fantasy series. You're some kind of warrior or wizard or something that goes around beating the hell out of monsters twice his/her size and defeating the last boss which usually takes a million hits and then "Hooray, you saved the world!". It's not something that I dislike (because I like the FF series) but they sure are boring because of all the grinding you have to make or everytime you have to go to someplace towards the beginning of the game, you keep encountering enemies so weak that it's pointless to even kill (because of the little experience they give to you). At least that's my opinion about it, but it's now time you ask: "Why is he telling his opinion about the FF games in a review of Earthbound?"
The answer is simple, it's because Earthbound doesn't have anything of it. Although it's a RPG (a heavy text RPG) and it still requires you to do some grinding, this game is located in the present so that means that there are no knights, monsters, ancient swords, wizards, dragons or anything related to that. So, what do you have? You have evil hippies, unassuming local guys, crows, snakes, punks and dogs.
The main character is a kid and your weapons are baseball bats or frying pans. You buy stuff with an ATM card and you call your dad to save your progress.
When you talk to other people, they don't say things like: - "You have to save the world, your our only hope!" - but they say things like: - "Don't get to close...I just farted...eh...eh...eh...sorry!" Not to say that they don't tell you important stuff but they introduced funny characters that make the story and overall experience even more enjoyable.
The graphics are amazing for SNES standards and the music is awesome. As said above, the story is very enjoyable and it has funny moments as well as "Epic Oh My God Did That Just Happened?" moments. Overall, it's a great game that shouldn't be this underrated. If you consider yourself a RPG fan and you see this game in sales at a great price (even though this game is quite expensive nowadays) buy it and see for yourselves how great this game is.
Until the next review!