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I am in the midst of an obsession that appears to run quite deep. The subject of that obsession? Earthbound, a cult classic RPG from the mid-nineties that was a huge hit in Japan but never caught on quite right in America.
I liked the game a lot when I was a kid, and it stuck in my mind a lot better than any number of forgettable SNES DragonQuest clones I played at that age. The retro graphics, the quirky humor, the unusual setting...all of that really made it stand out from the crowd, as well as some more nebulous quality that made me come back to it again and again.
Now, replaying it, I am absolutely floored by this game. The attention to detail is astonishing, the humor is great on a lot of levels, and there's so much heartfelt emotion in this game that it's a simple joy to play. This game loves you, and if you love it back it will reward you more than nearly any other game I've seen. The artistry is astounding...this game was written by a novelist, and a clever one at that, so the writing's good...but the most artistic thing about this game is how well it uses the video game format. It really transforms the generic DragonQuest format into something beautiful and engaging, giving you an engrossing world to play with, a storyliine that IS the game rather than being cut-scenes BETWEEN game-y bits, and moments of pure joy, terror, and sweetness.
What is it about?
It's about saving the world, of course.
Earthbound is set in a iconic fantasy version of 1990s America -- white picket fences, girls in pink dresses, hard-luck blues bands, ray guns, skyscrapers, baseball, hamburger joints, and zombies.
You play Ness, an ordinary kid who finds out he has a not-so-ordinary destiny to save the world from a dark future where an evil alien named Giygas has plunged the world into terror and destruction. Armed with nothing but your trusty baseball bat and a bit of psychic powers, Ness will travel across the oddball world of Earthbound to face his final foe. Along the way, you'll meet up with some friends -- a cute girl psychic, a bespectacled boy genius, and a prince from a faraway land. You'll go to some strange places -- because while this journey is on its surface a simple "find the MacGuffin" quest, the result is quite unlike any other game in existence.
Since my fanfic isn't turning out well and I haven't had the impetus to do fanart, I'm going to make this contribution to the internet instead. Here's my play-through of Earthbound, with pictures, with my thoughts. It isn't much, but I think it'll be fun.
Let's Play Earthbound!
That's the first installment of TL;DR Earthbound theater. Tune in for Part 1: Rescuing Paula! This time with pictures!
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cranky