myau56 wrote:Phantasy Star ? I don't know this game at all...is it a good game ?
Joke apart, great review ! Keep up the good work
I am still working on Phantasy Star II- that review will be larger than the others i have written so far, most likely, as games that are near-universally described as "classic" trip my critical trigger and make me want to dig deep into the nut and bolts of the gameplay and how it interacts with the rest.
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Earthbound
Release Date: 1994 (US), 1995 (NA)
Developers: HAL Laboratory, APE
Platform: SNES
Conventional(ha!) RPG
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Earthbound is actually the second game in the "Mother" trilogy, and the only game in the series to have an official release in the US. Mother 1 (AKA Earthbound Zero) for the NES was actually translated, but never released. Mother 3 (originally for the N64, but moved to the GBA) has had a fan translation, but nothing truly official. Earthbound was the victim of one of the worst marketing campaigns ever devised for a video game (remember the "this game stinks" ads?), and as a result recieved disappointing sales in the US. However, it made a huge splash among those who played it due to its unique sense of writing and presentation. I actually consider it tied with Phantasy Star 4 as the best RPG of the 16-bit era.
Before going into the plot of the story, it must be said up-front that Earthbound takes place in a somewhat contemporary modern-day setting- this game doesn't use the trappings of a full-fantasy game like Dragon Warrior, or even much sci-fantasy, like the Phantasy Star series. Save points are telephones, food acts as recovery items, you can use buses to get between towns, and there's only one sword in the game, and it's an optional weapon. The main plot of the game is quite simple in its conception. A little ways outside of the sleepy town of Onett in the country of Eagleland (more on that later), a meteor suddenly crash lands. This awakens a local boy named Ness, who goes out to investigate, only to be met with a psychic bee from the future. He declares that in the future, all is ruled by the power of a mighty destructive entity called Giygas, but that three and three friends he has not yet met have the power to avert the doomed fate of the world. When he is mortally wounded by a neighbor who mistook him for a dung beetle, the bee hands over the Sound Stone, with which Ness can gather strength to confront this mighty enemy from eight special points in the world. The next morning, Ness begins his journey that will take him around (and through) the world.
Now, the creator of the game, Shigesato Itoi, said that Earthbound (and the Mother series in general) was "Dragon Quest with a different name", and it's easy enough to see the similarities. There's no shared inventory, there is an action menu outside of combat, and the combat gameplay is quite similar, breaking down into Fight, Defend, PSI (magic by another name), Item, and whatever special abilities are unique to a character. The only real battle innovation, however, is the rolling HP counter- if a character takes damage, instead of all the HP being removed at once, it rolls down on the counter. If a character takes a hit that would reduce their HP to zero, but the fight ends or the character is healed before the counter reaches zero, then the character survives the battle and doesn't need to be revived. The game is fairly generous with its battle rewards, though, so it doesn't require nearly as much grinding as the Dragon Quest games or other '80s RPGs. Also, if your character is significantly stronger than the enemy or group of enemies in question, you will automatically win the battle and gain all of the rewards. Enemies don't spring out of nowhere- they are encountered wandering around in the various areas, and how you contact them affects whether you or they get a surprise round, or if you just proceed as normal- Attacking them from the back gives you an advantage, and being attacked form behind... doesn't.
The real strength of the game is in the writing, and not just for what's related to the main plot. Shigesato Itoi wrote all of the game dialogue himself, and it was for the better due to the fact that it had his single unified (and slightly unhinged) vision. It's a rather quirky game, to be sure. Eagleland itself is basically Norman Rockwell's America, and Itoi had put in numerous shout-outs to bits of western culture, most notably references to the Blues Brothers and the Beatles. Because I can't really summarize the whole thing, here a few out-of-context things the player will have to deal with on Ness's journey.
-To convince the police to take down a roadblock that's stalling your progress, you must defeat the police chief in single combat.
-An insidious, fanatic cult based around the worship of the color blue.
-A dungeon designer working with a local scientist to become a scientific marvel- Dungeon Man, part dungeon, part man.
And more of that sort of thing, really. It is one of the few games where it is worthwhile to talk to every single random NPC, just to see what ridiculous things might come out of their mouths.
While some thought has been put into the environments, we now come to the graphics- 1994 and 1995 were the years of Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, which had some of the most lavish graphics to appear on the system- whereas Earthbound barely looks like a launch title, and isn't a huge improvement on its NES predecessor. The screenshots will show you what I mean. On the other hand, however, the music is top-notch, and is a rather high-tier soundtrack among the various SNES RPG titles. While not as orchestral or lavish as the tracks for FFVI or Chrono Trigger, there is no out-of-place music, and there are some extremely good individual pieces out of the lot.
Earthbound ended up being one of the overlooked classics of the SNES RPG era, and I would rate it as probably the best RPG for that system, on my own odd scale. While it isn't as technically ambitious as other games, it does what it does extremely well. The game flows quickly, the combats are challenging without being generally unfair, and it actually makes you want to interact with all of the NPCs due to Itoi's solo work on the whole game script.
(Ry's notes: The game actually game bundled with the strategy guide- I not only still have it, but I even know where it is. Biggest game box I ever bought. It also had a hilariously aggressive copy-protection scheme. Also, the game has some rather unconventional status ailments, like the mushroom.)
Screenshots: