Not to offend anyone (Earthbound).

[highwind]

I tried to play Earthbound but I felt like a retarded baby.

I got to Twoson and was wandering around the town and just had ZERO interest in the game.

So I popped in Xenogears for the first time in several years and I'm now the proud owner of an enormous boner.

No offense to Earthbound lovers. I'm sure if I played it in its hey-day I'd be singing a different tune.

[Riotsword]

Re: Not to offend anyone (Earthbound).

I'm not offended, I just feel a sort of pity for you.

j/k.

Everyone's got their likes and dislikes, you just happen to not like EB.

Xenogears is the ****, though.

[RPGD]

Re: Not to offend anyone (Earthbound).

You might end up liking Mother 3, however. Give it a go when it comes over. It's surprisingly melancholy.

[Loki]

Re: Not to offend anyone (Earthbound).

Yup. Xenogear's sure is ****.

Earthbound's seeming simplicity can turn off a lot of people. I hated the game the first time I played it too. I got to Happy Rest Valley before I gave up in disgust. But a few weeks later I found I couldn't get Onett's theme out of my head. I sudenly realized how much of an impression the game had made on me and promptly rushed out and bought it. I've played it over and over sence then and I always find new things that astonish me.

[highwind]

Re: Not to offend anyone (Earthbound).

You might end up liking Mother 3, however. Give it a go when it comes over. It's surprisingly melancholy.

Yeah, I'm probably going to do that.

[Valkysas]

Re: Not to offend anyone (Earthbound).

Is mother 3 even confirmed for a US release though? I know it's being released in europe regardless though.

I dont like earthbound. Me and my sister bought it the day it came out, she loved it (still does) and I grew tired of it VERY quickly. its just not fun to play.

[Gwommy]

Re: Not to offend anyone (Earthbound).

I tried to play Earthbound but I felt like a retarded baby.

I got to Twoson and was wandering around the town and just had ZERO interest in the game.

So I popped in Xenogears for the first time in several years and I'm now the proud owner of an enormous boner.

No offense to Earthbound lovers. I'm sure if I played it in its hey-day I'd be singing a different tune.

My thoughts exactly, Highwind. I will say that it is cool that it is set in more of a modern day where as most RPGs are set more towards medieval times. So that should have made it more interesting, but the game just felt too childish. I did manage to complete the game though, and I never went back to it since.

[The Toecutter]

Re: Not to offend anyone (Earthbound).

A serious RPG with a modern setting is a very rare sight indeed.

[John Mora]

Re: Not to offend anyone (Earthbound).

Mother 3 isn't confirmed for the U.S. RPGD just sees things through rose-colored glasses.

[RPGD]

Re: Not to offend anyone (Earthbound).

I never said it was.

[John Mora]

Re: Not to offend anyone (Earthbound).

Give it a go when it comes over.

?

[Jeroak Nelave]

Re: Not to offend anyone (Earthbound).

Sorry, Earthbound is nice and all, but it has nothing on other SNES RPG's like FF3, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, etc.

The game is "quirky", but not all that good.

[Jamos' Old Account]

Re: Not to offend anyone (Earthbound).

So I popped in Xenogears for the first time in several years and I'm now the proud owner of an enormous boner.

Congrats! Nothing better than a Xenogears related boner. If the boner lasts for over 8 hours please concult your doctor.

As for Earthbound, I never played it before. In fact, I never even heard of it until I joined the pavilion. I still don't know much about it. Maybe I'll check into it.

[Kefka Jr.]

Re: Not to offend anyone (Earthbound).

Didn't you have the New Age Retro Hippie as your icon for a while?

[marcus]

Re: Not to offend anyone (Earthbound).

Earthbound captivated me with a modern setting as if viewed through the eyes of a child. The fact that the game is very lighthearted is also major points in my book because I grow tire of drab "You encounter a goblin, what do you do?" games that try to take themselves too seriously but fail in any sort of realistic development, direction, and communication with the PLAYER rather than the actual story and characters. Earthbound was like a modern Dragon Quest VI (as Mother was a parody/satire of DQ); it took place in a parody of our country yet completely warped it in a colorful way that felt like it was retelling a fairy tale in a 1990s setting. This was something completely unseen in any video game to date especially considering games like Chrono Trigger and FFVI had already came out earlier with their melodramatic (yet very good) tales.

With that being said, Earthbound is also the first postmodern game; a literary style that I've been interested in ever since reading Murakami. None of the events are in any way connected to each other. No conversation is devoid of myth or legend (aliens living among us, talking animals, the lochness monster??). It's parodic (another postmodern quality), the world is an interconnected global society with no single ruler or authority figure, there's a definite mass media dominated society, and experience is something that you the player goes through; not something the "Dungeon Master" or a fake Narrator dictates to you. Basically, the laws of the world are governed by chaos.

Very few other games use this style (Metal Gear Solid 2 being one of them) and because of this it captured me. Some people were turned off by it's simplistic design and lack of focus, but it's UTTER CHAOS and unpredictability is what kept me focused. I never knew what to expect next; one minute I was fighting pajama wearing gang members, then I was saving a little girl from a cult that worships the color BLUE, and next I'm in a village of aliens who share the same conscious mind.

As a game, Earthbound was subpar but as a literary work Earthbound was GENIUS (in my opinion). Unfortunately, the Mother series is so far from what the mainstream consider "Normal" (just like the surrealism of Ico or the "personal discovery" of Kings Field) that it's sales were low because people weren't used to it and couldn't connect. An unfortunate side effect, but I still praise game developers for trying new things which keeps people on their toes and helps a stale genre stay fresh.