Earthbound Is Weird (And That's A Good Thing)

So I’ve been playing Earthbound lately. It’s my first go-around. A few hours in, I’m delighted and slightly bemused at how strange Earthbound can be. I’ve never played a JRPG like it. Mostly, it’s all in the writing. The characters say the weirdest things. So does the flavor text. Here’s the attack description for PSI Flash, for example. It’s, uh. It’s kind of intense! Who wrote this? (Ed. Note: he wrote it.) what the fuck pic.twitter.com/lovUz7eMOG — Patricia Hernandez (@xpatriciah) August 12, 2015 A few more stray thoughts on my first few hours, in bullet-point/Tweet/screenshot form… Wow, this game is hard. I have probably died more times in the first couple of Earthbound towns than I did playing Bloodborne for the first time. Nobody told me it would be this hard; I almost feel embarrassed saying so. Jason says it’s “intentionally difficult at first and then gets easier as you go—it’s a subversion of Dragon Quest.” I’m looking forward to getting past this difficulty hump. I just kind of want to enjoy the weird characters and dialogue.cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({"playerId":"e3616d04-4972-4839-a63a-c6975e2e9731","settings":{"advertising":{"macros":{"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.kotaku.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"1723738228","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"uncategorized","SECTION":"","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"uncategorized","TAGS":"","NOP":"0"},"timeBeforeFirstAd":0}}}).render("cnx-player-main")}); One moment I’m fighting cops, the next I’m fighting UFOs, hippies, exploding trees, and angry blue ladies. OK rummy 365 then! The sprites in this game are so fucking cute. I want to pinch Ness’ cheeks so bad. And this color palette, man. The game is damn pretty. @nessitsyourdad might be one of the best Twitter accounts out there right now. Observe/click on the images to see the GIFs: .@MikeSweetnSowah pic.twitter.com/czBUNj0EM5 — Ness, It's Your Dad (@nessitsyourdad) August 11, 2015 [sorry for the delete/repost; glitch I wanted to fix] pic.twitter.com/B0QfAKcNr3 — Ness, It's Your Dad (@nessitsyourdad) August 11, 2015 .@TristanSevers pic.twitter.com/6x4qv1iDBg — Ness, It's Your Dad (@nessitsyourdad) August 11, 2015 .@lediva pic.twitter.com/gnkZUpfR8t — Ness, It's Your Dad (@nessitsyourdad) August 10, 2015 This then leads me to my next point, which is: There's just something about the entire call dad mechanic–even the way the text presents itself–that is encoded w/ a sense of yearning. — Patricia Hernandez (@xpatriciah) August 11, 2015 I’m having so many dad feels while playing this. What a fascinating mechanic it is, to call your parents. In any other context it might sound like a drag, but here, I am always hopeful that my parents will say something new to me in-game. I genuinely feel like a kid. Earthbound is a strange game in a lot of ways but the weirdest element to me is the way my parents keep putting money in my bank account — Patricia Hernandez (@xpatriciah) August 12, 2015 rummy 51 Nevermind the fact that your dad sends you money based on how many things you kill! I love the condiment mechanic. It’s smart! More good food mechanics in games, please. Egg? pic.twitter.com/oUmSgJ9fet — Patricia Hernandez (@xpatriciah) August 11, 2015 The egg turned into a chicken?! — Patricia Hernandez (@xpatriciah) August 11, 2015 Hilariously, I accidentally let said chicken loose after being confused to hell and back why my game kept chirping. Only after buying another egg did I realize I could sell those suckers for some Nice Cash. feel kind of sad for enemies in earthbound who call for help only to have the game say nobody will come lol — Patricia Hernandez (@xpatriciah) August 12, 2015 what kind of a name is carpainter — Patricia Hernandez (@xpatriciah) August 12, 2015 cant wait to tell all those kids that I found Paula and then accidentally let her die pic.twitter.com/Hfx38Z3in1 — Patricia Hernandez (@xpatriciah) August 12, 2015 is this even appropriate pic.twitter.com/nopZeN2EqR — Patricia Hernandez (@xpatriciah) August 12, 2015 Cant wait to tell my dad about all the trash I'm playing with pic.twitter.com/kec0YuNkGg — Patricia Hernandez (@xpatriciah) August 12, 2015 And, that’s where I’m at currently—just got to Threed. I’m trying to figure out why nobody will shut up about zombies. It’s only taken me about a year to get this far, after trying the game on and off for rummy best a year. Here’s hoping that the next few sections go down easier!