Alright, I have to post it here as I've now started going through it for the third time...
The game I refer to is Earthbound, an RPG for the SNES. Apparently, Earthbound is fairly popular in Japan (where it's called the Mother series, Earthbound being the second game in the series) but it's not too well-known anywhere else. It was released around the same time as PSIV, when RPGs were stuck in the medieval-knights-and-dragons rut. I'm not saying that the medieval setting was bad, it was just getting overused. But anyway, here in the states, the Smash bros. games introduced a lot of people to Earthbound as Ness is a playable character in all of the smash titles to date, but it still seems to have relatively few, if devoted, fans. As an aside, I think the name 'Smash brothers' may have come from Earthbound to begin with, as HAL Laboratory developed both the smash games and Earthbound. In Earthbound, when you get a critical hit, it's a 'SMAAAAAAAAASH!' attack.
To Earthbound itself...overall, it's a fantastic game. Like any others, it has its flaws, and I guess I'll get those out of the way. For one thing battle system is pretty basic, but there are some things I want to point out about it later. The game's also fairly linear, but not necessarily straightforward, so it can be a little confusing sometimes. But generally, as long as you just talk to people like you should in RPGs, you'll get through it. The biggest flaw are the multi-bottle rockets, an item that only Jeff can use...they really do break the game if you use them. These things can take most of the bosses in one hit. It makes things a little easy, but the good thing is that you don't HAVE to use them if you don't want to.
Now the good points. About the battle system, I must point out a few things...one is the Auto-fight function. In many RPGs, some battles against weaker enemies you just use your basic attacks against, but you have to go through each character and input the command. The auto-fight feature takes care of this for you. Another is the 'automatic win'. If you're strong enough and you run into a weak enemy, you get a green swirl on the screen and it turns multi-colored, and you get a 'you won!' message. So you don't have to bother fighting weak guys. And then there's the rolling HP meter...instead of your HP just dropping when you take a hit, it rolls down like a slot machine and you don't die until you hit 0. This gives you a chance to heal someone who's taken a mortal hit. I like that.
But what really stands out about this game is the plot, setting, and sense of humor. In the end, the plot is save-the-world, so that's not different, but the story in getting there is quite touching and takes you to a whole host of bizarre places (like Saturn Valley, where the Mr. Saturn live.) Your main quest is given to you by Buzz-Buzz, an alien bee from 10 years in the future who comes out of a meteorite that crashes in Ness's (you) quiet suburban neighborhood. Buzz-Buzz tells you to visit the eight sanctuaries located around the world, and gives you the Sound Stone so you can record the eight parts of the earth's melody contained at these locations, so that Ness's psychic powers will be channeled and multiplied by the earth (represented by Ness getting an absurd stat boost after you've visited all 8 sanctuaries) so you can defeat Giygas, the bad guy. This journey takes you to several suburban areas and eventually the city of Fourside, as well as a swamp, deserts, a town ruled by a cult obsessed with blue, the floating realm of Dalaam, a beach resort, and the Lost Underworld where dinosaurs rule. All you're armed with at the beginning is your PSI powers and a baseball bat. You'll also find references to the Beatles (a yellow submarine, mainly), Monty Python, countless 50s sci-fi B-movies, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and countless other things. Just be sure to call your dad to save your progress sometimes, and if you're feeling homesick, your mom is just a phone call away too.
Wow, this is long. I don't want to give too much else away if anyone does give this game a try, but I do just want to post this link...
http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00123/
That is the earth's melody (granted, it's a remix, but oh well). That particular tune falls under the category 'great video game music' as far as I'm concerned, despite it being short and simple.