earthbound

EarthBound
Developer(s)	Ape, Inc. and HAL Laboratory, Inc.
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Designer(s)	Shigesato Itoi
Release date(s)	JPN August 27, 1994 [1] NA June 1, 1995 [2] JPN June 20, 2003 (GBA port)
Genre(s)	Role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: K-A (Kids to Adults) CERO: 12
Platform(s)	SNES
Media	24 megabit cartridge

EarthBound, released in Japan as MOTHER 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushū! (MOTHER2 ギーグの逆襲!, Mazā Tsū Gīgu no Gyakushū!^?, lit. "Mother 2: Gyiyg's Counterattack!"), is a role-playing video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. While it is known as EarthBound in the United States, it is the second game in the Mother series. The game was never released in Europe.

EarthBound is a sequel to the original Mother, a Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System title released only in Japan. Mother and EarthBound are not directly connected. One of the only connections plotwise between the two is Giygas, the primary antagonist in both games, who was also significantly changed between the first and second games.

The soundtrack was composed by Hirokazu Tanaka and Keiichi Suzuki and was available on CD in Japan, as were manga comics.

Plot

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 defeat 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.

Ness' mom telling him to be careful.

Ness finds the first sanctuary in Onett and then moves on to Twoson. He rescues a girl named Paula from the Happy Happyist Cult in Happy Happy Village and finds the second sanctuary there. Then, they move on to Threed, which is overrun by zombies. When Ness and Paula are captured, Paula sends a telepathic message to Jeff in Winters, who uses Dr. Andonuts(his father)'s Sky Runner to reach Threed and rescue Ness and Paula. The three of them travel to Saturn Valley, which is populated by a bizarre race of creatures called Mr. Saturns, who have been going missing recently. A massive pile of vomit named Belch has been kidnapping them, and has also given life to the zombies to attack Threed. Ness defeats him by using a jar of fly honey, and Ness finds the third sanctuary in Saturn valley. He moves on to Fourside. Once there, he discovers that Fourside's Mayor, Monotoli has been taken over by a strange item called the Mani Mani Statue. Ness frees Monotoli, who tells Ness to go to a pyramid in a desert.

Ness finds the fourth and fifth sanctuaries in Winters and Fourside, respectively. Ness returns to Threed and fixes the Skyrunner to go to Summers. Ness falls unconscious in Summers and dreams of a far-off land known as Dalaam, where Prince Poo has completed his 'Mu' training and joins Ness on his quest. The four of them find a boat and go to Scaraba and Ness finds the pyramid, where he learns how to defeat Giygas. Ness returns to Dalaam and finds the sixth sanctuary there. He uses a submarine to go to Deep Darkness, where he meets Belch again. Once Belch is defeated, Ness finds the Tenda Village. Only the people of Tenda can open the way to the Seventh Sanctuary, but they're all too shy. Apple Kid has a book about overcoming shyness, but is kidnapped by Giygas. Ness returns to Winters and rescues Apple Kid, and Dr. Andonuts, who begins building the Phase Distorter, a machine that is essential to defeating Giygas. Ness uses the book to convince the Tenda to open the way to the Seventh Sanctuary. Once he activates it, he finds the eighth and final sancutary in the lost underworld.

When Ness activates the final sanctuary, he is teleported to a world made out of his dreams, Magicant. He destroys the evil Mani Mani Statue there, which destroys Magicant but also makes Ness very strong. Dr Andonuts finishes the Phase Distorter and uses it to send Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo back into the past. The four of them find that Ness's neighbor, Pokey has allied himself with Giygas. Giygas becomes so powerful that his mind is completely destroyed. Paula begins praying, which weakens Giygas's defenses. When the player begins praying too (via on-screen text), Giygas is completely eradicated. Pokey escapes, and Ness and his friends safely return home.

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 staffs.

Characters

See also: List of EarthBound characters

The game has a cast of four permanent playable characters. Ness is the silent protagonist of the game. He wakes up when a meteor crashes behind his house, setting him off on his adventure. He comes into contact with Paula, Jeff, and Poo, who decide to join him.

Gameplay

The battle system used in EarthBound. Only the enemy (in this case a Starman Junior) is seen.

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. Many other aspects of the gameplay, however, are somewhat unconventional. Battles are not random because the enemies are visible in the navigation portion of the game. 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 gets 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 weighted by 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.

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, PSI Teleport helps players return to previous areas quickly.

Another non-traditional element is the perspective used for the world. The game uses oblique projection, while most 2-D RPGs use a top down view on a grid or an isometric perspective.

Japanese release

The game was released in Japan on August 27, 1994. Known as Mother 2: Gyiyg Strikes Back!, the game is the sequel to Mother, which was released for the Famicom.

EarthBound follows the same basic plot as its predecessor, but Giygas ("Gyiyg" in the Japanese version) is the only returning character.

U.S. release

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 such as a $10 off coupon, 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] Despite these marketing efforts, the game did not sell well in the United States.^[4] The game has since gone on to gain a cult popularity, recently being ranked the thirty-third best game of all time by the IGN website.^[5] The complete American package of game, box, and player's guide has become a collector's set among some gamers, regularly selling in the area of $100 US on eBay.

Popularity

It is one of the most requested games on Wii's Virtual Console, it will eventually be released later sometime, either in 2007 or 2008.

See also

• EarthBound (series)
• List of places in EarthBound/Mother 2
• Mother 2 (soundtrack)

Notes and references

External links

• EarthBound at Nintendo.com
• Earthbound at the Internet Movie Database

Unofficial sites

• Starmen.Net
• Mother2.net
• A critique of Mother 2
• Mother Party(Japanese)

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