Once I finish EarthBound...

[DavidBowman]

I waited for 2 years to replay EarthBound (or Mother 2 in Japan), which may possibly be the longest stretch of time I've ever had between replays. I was waiting for my Pandora to play it again, and now that I have my Pandora I've enjoyed playing it again immensely!


EarthBound is my favorite game of all time. That's definitely hard to say because there are many, many games that I love. However, I feel safe in saying that because I've lost count of how many times I've played it through over the last 15+ years. It was probably the first RPG I played (or at least liked), and since I'm not the biggest RPG player I think the fact that I keep playing it says a lot.


There's so much to love about the game. Though I could, I'll not go on and on about it here. Starmen.net exists for that purpose.


I tried playing Mother 3 once, but I couldn't get into it. I haven't ever played Mother (or EarthBound Zero) for more than a few minutes.


For me to commit to playing a long game these days, it basically takes up most of the little free time that I have away from work, family, friends (and of course these boards). So basically it's a major thing for me to play a new retro game over another favorite one.


What I want to know is:

• Does anyone here share my love of EarthBound?
  
• Does anyone want to convince me to play or not to play the other games in the Mother series?
  
• Given my love for EarthBound, would I be disappointed by the other games?
  

Thanks for your input!

 

[SOLGarion]

I always come back to Crystalis or FF as far as retro rpgs go, never got around to earthbound (I know diff systems).


Been using all my time on the toilet. All you do is crap on the pot? I pooped and leveled up!!! Cant wait for my icp. My wife thinks I spend too much time on the pot as it is, wait till I don't have to use a ghetto wii mote set up...

 

[SOLGarion]

Just went to starmen.net.


I think this sold it for me, I will play it after I beat crystalis again (just got the thunder bracelet)


obsessive-compulsive police roadblocks


bribing crooked politicians


saving a girl kidnapped by a cult obsessed with the color blue


solving a town's zombie problem


freeing a race of aliens enslaved by a talking pile of puke


fighting hippies with toothbrushes


wandering inside a psychedelic minus-world ruled by an evil statue


being taught by a talking monkey how to teleport


having your soul transplanted into the body of a robot in order to facilitate time travel

 

[DavidBowman]

[announcer voice] Yes, all these things and more can be yours if you play EarthBound! You won't be disappointed. [/announcer voice]


My favorite part of the game is freeing the town of Threed from the zombies. The entire game is full of quirky humor and pop-culture references, but this is my favorite part. You can even talk to the zombies at one point.


And actually, I read on the pot. Try Uncle John's Bathroom Reader series. They packed full of useless (but entertaining) knowledge.

 

[second exodous]

I never mentioned my fav Mother site in one of the other threads we were talking about Earthbound but since you mentioned starmen.net I think I should mention http://earthboundcentral.com/. I go there every few months to see what is new, it is pretty interesting.


Yeah, Earthbound is one of my fav games also, I need to play it again. I start and never finish quite often but I have passed it in the past. As far as Mother 3 goes I have yet to play it but plan to when I get my Pandora. The first one I have yet to pass, I don't know how far I got, I think only 10 min into it, but I think it will be a lot more bearable on a handheld than sitting in front of my computer.

 

[Christoph.Krn]

obsessive-compulsive police roadblocks
bribing crooked politicians


saving a girl kidnapped by a cult obsessed with the color blue


solving a town's zombie problem


freeing a race of aliens enslaved by a talking pile of puke


fighting hippies with toothbrushes


wandering inside a psychedelic minus-world ruled by an evil statue


being taught by a talking monkey how to teleport


having your soul transplanted into the body of a robot in order to facilitate time travel

Wait - you're saying Earthbound has wandering? I'm sold!

 

[fuji99]

This is one of the games I'm really excited about replaying, haven't touched it since packing up my SNES years and years ago.

 

[Hitnrun]

I tried very hard to get into Earthbound, played over 10 hours of it, but couldn't get really into it.


It just can't compare with my personal best games of all time: FF6 and Lunar: SSSC.

 

[SOLGarion]

I say 10 hours counts as a good faith effort to get into a game, even an RPG.


Although some games have a lower threshold. Such as the previously mentions Snake Rattle 'n Roll. I think about 30 seconds there counts as a good faith effort.

 

[- Theo -]

I do the same with Dungeon Master. I can basically replay it with my eyes closed now, can draw the map of the first 7 levels by hand... That being said, I haven't played it for quite some months... Off to save the world once again, Tiggy Tamal here I come!

 

[DavidBowman]

@second.exodous - Thanks for the link, I'll have to really go through it, but I just saw that someone beat the game in 6 hours!? cRaZy! I'm also excited about the Mother 1 + 2 translation going. This may convince me to play the original.


@Christoph.Krn - there's a good bit of wandering in the game, including inside the main character's subconscious at once point.


@Hitnrun - As far as Lunar goes: I have that game for the PSX still (wasn't it a Saturn game originally?), and while I enjoyed it, it definitely has more of a traditional RPG feel to it. This is one of the things that sets EarthBound aside from other RPGs: it's not knights and wizards, but rather teenagers with baseball bats, frying pans and air guns. It's not for everyone, but I can't tell you how much I love the Chuck Berry, Beatles, and Blues Brothers references throughout the game. 10 hours of game play is a solid effort though. I was hooked within the first few minutes, but that all comes down to personal taste. I haven't replayed Lunar since I beat it the first time.


I'll be playing FF6 (3) sometime in the future to see what all the fuss is about. I may cheat my way through it though as I don't have the tolerance for leveling up that I did when I was a teen (and actually got the game on the FF Anthology collection on the PSX, but I never played it).

 

[second exodous]

Yeah, don't play FF6 through a remake, the one's on the PS1 have horrible movies that were acted out in game in the original and in my opinion were much more fun to watch that way. Square seems to think that every game needs CGI in it to make it better but I think it cheapens the experience. At the very most just play a better translation, like a patch applied to the original ROM, not a remake.


I own both the Lunar games that came out on PS1 and plan to play them but I never noticed the horrible voice acting. I wish all games had an option to turn off the voice acting and have subs. I think they were originally Sega CD games though.

 

[WizardStan]

I replay World of Xeen every once in a while. I would probably say it is also my most favourite game of all time. That's why I want to make a map editor for it, create some new adventures in the same style.