Home

 › 

Articles

 › 

CheatCC Rewind: A Look Back at Earthbound

CheatCC Rewind: A Look Back at Earthbound

It is with greatest pleasure that I write I have played more games based on Earthbound within the last two years than I would have expected to. These games are Lisa The Painful RPG , Citizens of Earth , and Undertale , which seems to be the most popular of the three. The crazy thing is, they all really are like Earthbound ! Well, to varying degrees at least, but without a doubt each game wears its love of Earthbound on its sleeves.

But to emulate the classics, you have to understand what makes them so special, and that’s difficult because everyone, including game developers, has their own subjectives response. I love Earthbound and the slew of spiritual successors (well, except for Citizens of Earth) mentioned in the opening paragraph, but even I will never understand everything there is to know about any of them. That said, I believe that I can still discuss the basics as to what makes Earthbound such a strange, poignant game.

I think for many of the developers and players, the first thing that comes to mind is Earthbound ’s disarmingly cute art style that hides sinister undertones. At the time, Earthbound looked like no other RPG on the SNES because it looked as if a kid had drawn it–not to say that’s a bad thing, because the game follows a group of kids going on a wacky adventure. These kids–Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo–would use baseball bats, slingshots, toy guns, and other childish items to fight equally childish villains such as a slime monster called Belch. Also interesting is the setting in which Earthbound used to stand out from the rest of its JRPG competition, modern day (well, in the ’90s) America. Ostensibly, the RPG seemed like a fitting adventure for Charlie Brown.

But my view of Earthbound changed when I reached the final boss, Giygas. This creature, whom the heroes had to travel back in time just to stand a fraction of a chance against him, is seemingly evil incarnate, with no physical form which the players could harm. Suddenly, I realized that childish weapons were simply that; I interpreted this as the children growing up after encountering pure evil. However, upon replaying the game, I realize that the kids had been dealing with pure evil the entire time, and relatable evil such as cults and police corruption (seriously, the police won’t let the main character pass on to the next city unless he can defeat all of them in a fight).

The battle system is perfect for conveying such emotional hardships because it’s not as concerned with flashy attacks as the Final Fantasy series. Instead, Earthbound uses a first person perspective, transporting players into a psychedelic dimension where enemies are not afraid to tell you what they think. Players are also expressive; for instance, Ness will begin to miss his mom during the most troubling of times, which of course skewers his motivation to fight. Another character, Poo, enters the battle screen to endure a trial, and the battle text goes into disturbing detail as it describes every bone in his body–keep in mind, the character is a child–being broken. Granted, Earthbound ’s combat is slow-paced and not as fun as, say, Chrono Trigger ’s, but it makes up for it in the details; Earthbound ’s greatest strength is it can put you inside both your characters’ and your enemies’ heads.

CheatCC Rewind: A Look Back at Earthbound

These are just some of the qualities that make Earthbound special, and I think the game’s spiritual successors, Lisa , Citizens of Earth , and Undertale , have replicated these qualities to certain extent. Citizens of Earth , for instance, nailed the quirkiness of Earthbound ’s presentation, but it lacked in humor and subtlety. Undertale and Lisa do excellent jobs interjecting darkness into their cute style, and their emotional scenes have had me close to tears, but they too reject the subtlety of Earthbound ; Lisa is a post-apocalyptic game, so it makes sense to blatantly bring attention to itself as a cruel game, and Undertale is more interested in the meta.

Still, no game should try to completely replicate a classic; otherwise they just become duplicates, or if we’re being honest, ripoffs. There’s a lot to learn from Earthbound , such as the way it conveys emotional moments throughout the battle scenes, and I hope more indie developers take note. If more indie developers feel inspired by Earthbound, then I hope they pick and choose the aspects of the game that speaks to them, and then provide their own unique perspective.

To top