Sandy
Smash Champion
EarthBound is set in the year "199X" in the small town of Onett, part of Eagleland. The main character, Ness, wakes up when a meteor falls close to his house in the middle of the night. He heads out to investigate the meteor, but not before his mother reminds him to change out of his pajamas. At the crash site, he meets an insect named Buzz Buzz from ten years in the future who sends him on a quest to destroy the intergalactic destroyer Giygas in this time, because he is too powerful in the time that Buzz Buzz came from. Ness must then journey through the world, seeking his eight "sanctuaries" where the Earth's power is strongest in order to unite his own powers with the Earth's and gain the strength needed to confront Giygas.
EarthBound breaks the escapist, fantasy-oriented tendencies and themes of most RPGs by placing the action in a modern day world. These changes to typical RPG stories are often taken to an absurd extreme in EarthBound, such as the inclusion of baseball bats and yo-yos as weapons instead of swords or magical staves.
Many of the RPG elements featured in EarthBound are very traditional. In towns, players can purchase items, recharge energy, or gather information from various non-player characters. Battles are not random because the enemies are visible in the navigation portion of the game (although some, such as ants, are only a few black pixels, and difficult to spot or avoid). When the characters encounter an enemy, a battle starts. The player can be at an advantage or disadvantage when the battle starts: If the enemy is approached from behind, the player get an extra turn at the beginning of the battle and vice versa. As Ness and his friends become stronger, battles with weaker enemies are eventually won immediately, skipping the entire battle sequence altogether.
The battle system is very similar to the Dragon Quest series, in the sense that the player's characters are not shown onscreen. Once all actions are input, the protagonists and the enemies perform their actions in an order depending on each character's speed. Once the battle is won, players receive experience points in order to level up their characters and improve attributes.
As the game progresses, it becomes necessary to increase levels in order to cope with stronger enemies. An interesting aspect is the HP and PP, represented by counters that resemble odometers. When the character takes damage, their HP meter "rolls" down to the new number over a short time rather than jumping directly to it. When a character takes a hit that deals more damage than their current HP (referred to as mortal damage), they do not actually die until their meter rolls down to zero. This means that if the battle ends before the counter reaches zero, the character survives. It also gives the player an opportunity to heal their character before they die. This creates some intense moments in gameplay as the player is forced to go through turns as fast as possible in order to heal, especially since there are enemies that can deplete any character's entire HP with one hit. This adds a small amount of depth to gameplay.
One traditional RPG element not present in EarthBound is an overworld. Instead, players follow a path through a seamless world, occasionally branching off in some areas. Later on in the game, teleporting spells help players return to previous areas quickly.
Another non-traditional element is the perspective used for the world. The game uses oblique projection, while most RPGs use a top down view on a grid or an isometric perspective.
Releasing the game in the United States was considered somewhat of a gamble, as the game's graphics were very simple, especially compared to other role-playing games of the time, such as Final Fantasy VI. Additionally, the humor of the game is tied to its quirky portrayal of the West, which may not have translated to that region. In an attempt to increase sales, the game was also extensively promoted within Nintendo Power, with various special offers, including a contest involving scratch-and-sniff stickers, as well as a Nintendo Power-published player's guide that was included as a pack-in with the initial American release to boost sales and assist players.[3] Ultimately, EarthBound was not very commercially successful in the United States at the time of its release, although it has since spawned a large cult following among its loyal fans, with copies going for unusually large amounts of money in used video game stores (in some cases equal to those of the Final Fantasy series and Chrono Trigger)
As with many Japanese games, EarthBound underwent a number of changes in translation.
- Several names of towns are different:
- Threed was originally Threek.
- The Dusty Dunes Desert was originally the Doko Doko (Everywhere) Desert.
- Dalaam is known as Ramma.
- Scaraba is known as Scarabi.
- All references to alcohol were removed. Jackie's Cafe, for example, was originally known as Boruhesu's Bar. Coffee is uniformly substituted in place of alcohol, which leads to odd dialogue such as "Kids shouldn't drink espresso!".
- In the original Japanese version, the hospitals all had red crosses somewhere on the building. They were removed from the English version. There are two possible explanations, one regarding Nintendo's policy on religious iconography, and the other concerning the Swiss Red Cross. Interestingly enough, however, in Super Smash Bros. Melee, on the level Onett (a town in EarthBound), if the player pauses the game, there is a hospital in the background that does feature the red cross. It is unclear whether this was an oversight or if NoA has just become more lax with their policy.
- All the offensive "PSI" abilities in English are known as "PK" abilities in Japanese. However, in the Smash Bros. games, most of the techniques are once again named "PK".
- In the Japanese version, Ness is nude in Magicant wearing only a hat. In the English version, he is wearing his pajamas without his hat.
- The Peaceful Rest Valley was known as the Grateful Dead Valley. This was changed to avoid a trademark conflict with the band The Grateful Dead.
- The Happy Happy Village cultist sprites were significantly altered removing the letters "HH" from the forehead of their hoods and adding a white fuzzy pom pom to the end of the hood. It appears that it may have resembled hoods from the Ku Klux Klan and the pom pom was added to make it appear more like a Christmas hat of some sort. The map sprites remain unedited, however.
- The Runaway Five had clothes that were all of the same color and style in the Japanese version. The Japanese group was known as the "Tonzura Brothers". They will retain their Japanese attire in the Super Smash Bros. series when they are shown, in all versions. It is possible this change was made because the band resembled the Blues Brothers too closely in design and theme.
- The Runaway Five sharply resemble the Blues Brothers, especially the two lead singers. It should also be noted in the Japanese version, they resemble the Blues Brothers even more, with the entire band, and notably the two lead singers, wearing black suits and sunglasses.[5]
- One of the non-player "citizen" characters in the game looks almost exactly like Mr. T (though he is never referred to as such or says anything Mr. T might be thought to say).
- In the Japanese release of EarthBound (Mother 2), there is a set of default names for the characters and items related to the Mario series. Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo become Mario, Peach, Luigi, and Toad, respectively. The dog (King) becomes Yoshi, the player's favorite food becomes "mushroom", and the player's favorite thing becomes "goal".[6]
- The sea-creature Tessie found in Winters is a reference to the Loch Ness Monster (nicknamed Nessie).[citation needed]
- Another NPC resembles Peanuts character Pigpen
- In the Japanese version of EarthBound, Mother 2, many of the extra alternate names for characters and such are that of Beatles band members. Among them are John (Ness), Yoko (Paula), Paul (Jeff), George (Poo), and Ringo (King). In this particular set, the main character's favorite food is "Honey Pie," and his favorite thing is "Love."
- In the English version of the game, a question is asked by a townsperson in Onett that relates to the band's song "Yesterday."
- When Jeff's character is introduced, he quickly teams up with a monkey. It's possible that this is a reference to the Beatles song "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except for Me and My Monkey".
- The yellow submarine in the game is obviously a nod to their song and animated movie Yellow Submarine. (A sign near the submarine says "The yellow color is purely coincidental.")
- A member of a band in the game called the Runaway Five references a song which The Beatles covered called "Money (That's What I Want)," originally by Barrett Strong.
- The song played while traveling with the Dungeon Man contains a sample from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise).
- After the party has been to the Tenda Village and progressed to The Lost Underworld, the Tenda Elder will bid the party farewell by saying, "So long. I say goodbye", a possible reference to the Beatles songs "Kansas City" and "Hello, Goodbye." Furthermore, some of the Warp Men in Moonside often say "Hello! and, Goodbye!" before sending Ness to another location.
- The first few measures of the song played when Ness and his friends wake up at a hotel closely resembles a slowed down version of the melody from The Beatles song "Good Morning Good Morning."
- When entering Giygas's lair via the Lost Underworld (the Cave of the Past), a song reminiscent of the prelude to "All You Need Is Love" (the trumpets performing the Marseillaise) is played.
- The high-pitched violin scrapes in the song playing inside the Dungeon Man may be inspired by Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die" from the James Bond film of the same name.
- The music that plays as Jeff (or later the entire party) rides Tessie sounds similar to the beginning of "Strawberry Fields Forever".
- The music played when starting a new game and naming the characters contains a short musical sample from the theme song for the show Monty Python's Flying Circus, John Philip Sousa's Liberty Bell March.
- In Jackie's Cafe, the music contains a sample from the theme song for the Our Gang film series. The first four bars of The Star-Spangled Banner are also heard in the background.
- The background music for Moonside contains a sample from the Ric Ocasek song "Keep On Laughin."
- The battle music for fights with the New Age Retro Hippie enemy, as well as the Sharks' gang leader, Frank, is similar to the intro from "Johnny B. Goode" and several other Chuck Berry songs. This music also appears in Mother.
- A riff on the Super Mario Bros. theme, albeit in a different key, can be heard during the battle with the Slimy Little Pile.
- The main stage theme for Xevious can be heard in the background noise in the arcade in Onett.
- One of the battle themes resembles the song "Tequila" by The Champs.
- When spoken to, the character standing next to the ocean in Onett will play a melody from Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, movement 2 on his trumpet.
- The second song played by the Runaway Five in the Chaos Theater strongly resembles the song "The Changeling" by The Doors.
- The theme played while in the Sky Runner sounds similar to the synthesized introduction of The Who song "Won't Get Fooled Again."
- Two enemies in the game share the names of famous David Bowie songs: "Starman" and "Diamond Dogs".
- The music played during the Runaway Five's bus scenes bears some resemblance to music from the television series "Peter Gunn".
- The music played in Winters includes a riff from the Christmas carol "Deck the Halls."
- In Happy Happy Village, the villagers chant "Blue, blue", and Mr. Carpainter uses electric powers, possibly a reference to a David Bowie song from the album Sound + Vision, in which are the lyrics, "blue blue electric blue."
- The theme music of the Tenda tribe is based on the song "Watermelon Man", by Herbie Hancock. Fittingly, the Tenda people resemble watermelons.
- A lot of the music from the first game in the series is also remixed and reused, for example the New Age Retro Hippie's battle theme is an improved version of the fight music used when fighting "The Hippie" in Mother and one of the standard battle themes from Mother is used in EarthBound as the major boss (Your Sanctuary) battle theme. Also, inside Ness's house, a version of the Podunk overworld theme is played as well.
